Bill Hoppe of the Times Herald tweeted today that the Buffalo Sabres have signed defenseman Joseph Cecconi to a one-year two-way contract extension. Cecconi was set to become a group 6 unrestricted free agent after spending the past six seasons in the AHL and would make $775K at the NHL level and $325K in the minors.
The 26-year-old spent the first five and half seasons of his AHL career with the Texas Stars before coming over to the Sabres organization in a trade in December 2022. Cecconi spent the remainder of the year with Rochester Americans where he put up three goals and five assists in 41 games before posting two goals and three assists in 14 playoff games.
The Sabres saw enough from the former fifth-round pick to give him an opportunity to continue his career in North America. Cecconi has yet to play in the NHL and seems destined to spend next year in Rochester once again, particularly with Buffalo having several good defensive prospects who would be likely to get a call-up before the Youngstown, New York native.
The Sabres will be a team to keep an eye on in the coming days as they don’t have any major unrestricted free agents and they have roughly $14.5MM in cap space available.
Cecconi was a rock during the 2017 WJC for USA.