Only one of those are from the Modern NHL (where goal scoring is crazy high). Atleast Cernak can provide 15-20 points a year. Not high on him either, but Tampa has more than enough talent to make up for it. I guess the same can be said about Buffalo though.

The Sabres are 17-7-2 with Samuelsson in the lineup this season. They are 3-10-0 without him.

That's a wild stat. Is this a direct correlation? Are there stats to back this up?

https://buffalonews.com/sports/columns/inside-the-nhl-the-numbers-dont-lie-about-mattias-samuelssons-impact-on-sabres-fortunes/article_01883796-8908-11ed-ac8b-7309ccc86f9e.html

What is the cutoff for the modern NHL? Orpik was on the cup team 5 years ago...

Plenty of active guys on recent good teams. Adam Pelech, Brandon Carlo, Ryan Lindgren, Siegenthaler, Brodin, Tanev, . Defensive d men are definitely not a dying breed lol.

Samuelsson has 15 points in 80 games for his career. 10-20 points a year is pretty much where he's at. Again we're paying him to be a shutdown partner for Dahlin not so he can rack up secondary assists on the PP.

He's also really good at finding and placing outlet passes once the Sabres win back possession as well; which is a small/specific skill to have, but an important one.

For footy fans, think of a role like Makelele and how criminally underrated he was in his day.