Mattias Samuelsson has signed a new contract with the Buffalo Sabres.

Who even is that and why is he getting $4M

This type of contract is needed right now if they want to have some good-value deals in their (future) contention window. Might be steep now, but in a few years, they'll be glad they did it early.

Defenceman with 10 points in 42 games last season apparantly, played 54 games nhl games total

Why give him 4.2 million for 7 years????? Wtf

High Risk...Potentially High Reward.

It's one thing to do this for a guy who played a good full season, such as Alex Tuch in 2018. It's another thing to do this for a guy who has not even played a full season.

If Samuelsson actually becomes a viable 2LD, this contract could look like a bargain. But for now, it's a needless gamble. At least they'll get the 1/3 discount on a buyout if he turns out to not be that great (see: Hodgson, Cody).

Long time I haven't seen a Chayka's special, we'll see how this one turns out.
If he hits his 2LD ceiling the contract isn't even much of a bargain (more like going rate than anything else) so I don't see the upside considering they'll have other dman to spend money on soon.

Wow overpay. Unless he explodes this season... this contract is not good.

would've waited for him to play a full season.

whatever this kid has done to convince buffalo to give him 30 million dollars must be great.

Who?!?

From his stats, $4.3MM AAV x 7 years seems excessive.

Hopefully for Buffalo, it seems cheap by the end of the contract.

because he is a defensive dman who play top pair alongside dahlin. probably will log 23 minutes ish a night this year and rack up points thanks to him being with Dahlin. This is a boom or bust contract though, because if dahlin wants back to LD then we will have a 4m dollar 3LD.

Could seem cheap by the end of next year.

honestly i'm really excited to see how this turns out.

his comparables range from marino to josi to zaitsev.

Not gonna lie, I have no clue who this is.

Finished out the season on the top D pairing with Dahlin. Defensive Dman who plays a physical game, has an active stick and was able to seamlessly switch sides depending on what Dahlin was doing. The only Dman on the roster who was able to anticipate Dahlins play in the offensive zone, well worth the investment and it's going to be a bargain in a couple seasons.

One thing to say to everyone here, don't just look at his points, but remember that he is essentially the perfect pairing for dahlin. He's also been a very good shut down dman. Risky contract for sure and it caught me off guard, but this should be a smart move going forward.

Even if he has a good year does he get any more next season? Terrible contract, the reward is non-existent as opposed to waiting another year and the risk is immense for a team trying to get back to being relevant

Somehow worse than the Andrew Ladd contract...

Could be a McDonough of Slavin type player. Not as dominant as Slavin but good.

Unless Samuelsson also has a rare disease, I think it’s safe to leave Cody Hodgson out of this particular discussion.

The Sabres are so bullish… first Tage now Mattias. Respect the balls.

Unlike Tage's contract, the risk here remains kind of small. He could be bought out in 3 years for ~700k/year cap-hit penalty because of his age. The upside if he becomes a top4 Dman (which I assume they believe) strongly overcomes the potential downside.

High risk high reward. I think I'm in the minority when I say I actually like this for Buffalo. I think Samuelsson will live up to this and the last 5 years will be great value.

..

For your info : the buyout cost for him at 25 years old (in 2025) is 700k for 10 years