Buffalo Sabres hope to extend pair of key defensemen

The Buffalo News' reporter Lance Lysowski relayed on Wednesday that Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams has expressed to the agents of Owen Power and Rasmus Dahlin that the team would like to sign both defensemen long term. The Sabres have been aggressive in locking up their young core to long term deals and this development would keep in line with that gameplan. Both players have a year left on their respective contracts and would be restricted free agents in 2024, albeit with much different degrees of bargaining power.

Dahlin will be completing a three-year bridge contract. Since his contract was backloaded, he will carry a qualifying offer of $7.2M. The former first overall pick could simply accept the one-year deal and march into unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2025.

For his part, Power will have just completed his two-year entry-level contract and would only be due a qualifying offer just under $875K. He would also be ineligible for an offer sheet since he wouldn’t have enough service time to qualify as a Group 2 RFA. This could make for an interesting negotiation, one which might keep the average annual value down.

Dahlin is coming off a career season in which he put up 15 goals and 58 assists in 78 games. He had teased his offensive prowess in recent seasons but this was the first in which he was finally able to break through and produce like an elite offensive defenseman. The 23-year-old Swede -- along with Power -- led a defensive unit that backed the Sabres to their highest point total since 2010-11, also the last time the club made the playoffs.

Power just completed his first full NHL season and ranked second in 5-on-5 ice time per-game-played (19:46) among all NHL skaters. On the offensive side, he posted four goals and 31 assists in 79 games while helping to spark the Sabres second defensive pairing. He played a little over half of the power-play time of Dahlin and only managed eight assists on the man advantage. Should Power see more time on the power-play, he could see a large uptick on his point totals.

While there is an element of risk in any extension the Sabres have not shied away from taking the plunge. When Buffalo signed Tage Thompson to a seven year $50M contract extension last August, many felt that they had rushed to judgment and could end up with a bloated overpay. Thompson followed up his new contract with a second straight career year, though, finishing with 94 points in 78 games.

One could see similar risk upsides for Power, who has played just a single full NHL season. Meanwhile, Dahlin has demonstrated a half decade of impressive play and appears to only be getting better.