A new face may be skating alongside Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin on the team's top pair in Thursday night's season-opening game against the Columbus Blue Jackets: Louis Crevier.
The mammoth 6-foot-8 defenseman has rapidly climbed the depth chart while the Sabres work through injuries suffered by a trio of blueliners: Mattias Samuelsson, Olen Zellweger and Conor Timmins.
Samuelsson, initially labeled week-to-week with a lower-body injury, has made a quick recovery and may be available to face the Blue Jackets. If not, it'll likely be Crevier who's asked to fill that massive void next to the Sabres' cornerstone defender.
The 25-year-old Canadian was putting together an impressive training camp before the injury bug struck the Buffalo locker room, which made it an easy call for head coach Lindy Ruff to move him into a more prominent role as the club awaits reinforcements.
It also raises a key question: Should the Sabres try to re-sign Crevier now?
NHL teams currently find themselves in a tricky situation when it comes to contracts as a rising salary cap has caused extension values to explode over the past 12 months.
They can either sign someone before their potential breakout, which usually comes with a more reasonable price tag but also increased risk if the player doesn't meet expectations, or wait until the breakthrough arrives and proceed to pay a king's ransom. Neither route is perfect.
In Crevier's case, AFP Analytics predicted earlier in the offseason he'd be worth a three-year, $11.45 million extension ($3.82 million AAV) based on his play across three seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks. He arrived to Buffalo as part of the blockbuster Bowen Byram trade in June.
Although that number would likely be at least a bit higher now as front offices continued to hand out eye-popping contracts all offseason, anything in that $4 million range would make sense for Sabres general manager Jarmo Kekalainen.
Crevier, who mostly held his own when thrust into top-four minutes with the lowly Hawks last season, could nearly double that projected salary with a strong 2026-27 campaign. Dependable right-shot defensemen with his combination of size, skating and physical play aren't easy to find.
That's why striking early is probably the best path forward for Buffalo.
A Louis Crevier extension would provide Daxon Rudolph, Radim Mrtka insurance for the Sabres
Four members of Buffalo's blue line are locked in for the forseeable future: Dahlin, Samuelsson, Zellweger and Owen Power. The organization is hopeful its top two defensive prospects, Daxon Rudolph and Radim Mrtka, can fill the other spots within a year or two.
On paper, that creates quite a core on the back end for the Blue and Gold:
Left Defense | Right Defense |
|---|---|
Mattias Samuelsson | Rasmus Dahlin |
Owen Power | Daxon Rudolph |
Olen Zellweger | Radim Mrtka |
Yet, a GM can't depend solely on the growth of prospects, especially one in Kekalainen's position where his team is trying to emerge as a top-tier Stanley Cup contender.
Rudolph is coming off a monster year with the WHL's Prince Albert Raiders, scoring 78 points (28 goals and 50 assists) in 68 games to put himself in position to get selected fourth overall by the Sabres in the 2026 NHL Draft.
Now the question is whether he can back up those numbers during his freshman season at the University of Denver, where he'll face stronger, more experienced opponents.
Mrtka failed to take a meaningful step forward offensively in his first season after Buffalo took him with the No. 9 in the 2025 draft. He scored just one goal in 48 appearances (regular season plus playoffs) for the WHL's Seattle Thunderbirds.
He's still an intriguing prospect thanks to his size (6'6'') and all-around skill, but he's still quite far from the end of his development runway as he arrives to the AHL's Rochester Americans.
While Buffalo will clearly be in a fantastic position if those prized prospects pan out, Kekalainen must also prepare for an alternate universe where it takes time for them to become impact NHL players.
That's why locking up Crevier now — he can become a restricted free agent next summer and an unrestricted free agent as early as 2028 — feels like a wise move.
The Quebec native is a strong third-pair option, is capable of moving into a bigger role when necessary and, if there comes a point Rudolph and Mrtka are ready for the big club, trading a well-built right-shot defenseman on a team-friendly contract won't be a tough task.
Waiting until next summer when he's a restricted free agent could bring about a whole new group of complications, particularly with Jiri Kulich, Jack Quinn and Colten Ellis also set to become RFAs.
So, even though Crevier is only about to skate in his first game with the Sabres, giving him an extension seems like it could pay off handsomely for Buffalo in the long run.
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