Inside the NHL’s Biggest Contract Surprises of 2025: Who’s Winning and Losing Big Bucks?
Buffalo is in a good spot with its top nucleus of Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson, both of whom are paid $3 million less than they’re worth for seven and five years respectively. That’s a strong starting point to build around, aided by some other solid deals. There’s a trio of valuable ELCs, great cap hits for Alex Tuch and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and also some savvy work this summer (Ryan McLeod, Jack Quinn, Justin Danforth, Michael Kesselring, Conor Timmins and Alex Lyon).
What the Sabres need now is for their defense to round into form. Mattias Samuelsson needs to stay healthy and get back to the player he was two years ago, Bowen Byram needs to clean things up without the puck and most importantly, Owen Power needs to take a sizeable step forward. It’s Power’s growth that will dictate Buffalo’s success as the Sabres need him to be truly top-pair-caliber and not just top-four-worthy. The Sabres made a big bet on the player Power would be in the future — he needs to start holding up his end of the bargain.
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