The Buffalo Sabres have been proactive with a number of their own players in getting them signed to long-term extensions prior to them getting close to becoming eligible for an offer sheet or unrestricted free agency. The club did it with former team captain Jack Eichel and center Dylan Cozens before they were traded, and have also done so with current Sabres Tage Thompson, Zach Benson, Josh Doan, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, and Mattias Samuelsson.
On Thursday, the Pittsburgh Penguins locked up RFA forward Ville Koivunen to an eight-year, $32 million contract extension ($4 million AAV), being more proactive than Buffalo ever has, since the 23-year-old Finn has only 47 games of NHL experience and just 14 career points.
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With the salary cap increasing exponentially, a $4 million cap hit is not an insignificant amount, but could be a homerun for GM Kyle Dubas if Koivunen becomes a consistent middle-six forward, but it also gives the Pens two years of evaluation time, as they can use a one-third buyout until he turns 26 years old.
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The question for the 31 other clubs, including the Sabres, is whether they are willing to role the dice on any of their youngsters eligible for a new contract before the expiration of the eight-year max deal in the middle of next month. Even with eight years being the max, the only extensions that Buffalo has opted to go the full distance with is Eichel and Dahlin, and the only one coming out of their entry-level deal was Eichel.
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The youngsters eligible for an extension who have played similar NHL time coming off their ELC next summer are centers Noah Ostlund and Jiri Kulich. Winger Jack Quinn is entering the final year of a two-year bridge deal, and was connected in rumors to be part of the Connor Hellebuyck trade proposal with Winnipeg. Both Ostlund and Kulich are similar in age and lack of experience to Koivunen, which could give GM Jarmo Kekalainen the leverage to offer them a team-friendly deal.
This could be something that the Sabres are interested in doing, since both players are expected to be full-time NHLers this season with the departure of Alex Tuch. Their price tag could skyrocket with a solid regular season. If Buffalo chooses to be conservative, they can wait till next summer to get more proof of their worth, and each would be eligible to sign a seven-year deal, but they also would be eligible to sign an offer sheet with another NHL club as Leo Carlsson did with Philadelphia last month.
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