Rather than wait for an arbitrator to sort out his next contract, the Buffalo Sabres, and Henri Jokiharju have agreed to a one-year, $3.1MM contract. The deal will keep Jokiharju in Buffalo for his sixth season with the team and he will become an unrestricted free agent upon expiration.
Jokiharju is coming off arguably the best individual season of his career as he scored three goals and 20 points in 74 games for the Sabres while averaging nearly 19 minutes of ice time per night. The Finnish defenseman has become much better defensively as he led the team with a +14 rating and finished the season with a 92.0% on-ice save percentage in all situations. He didn’t spend too much time this past season on Buffalo’s special teams but would be the first option in case of injury.
The deal also ensures that the Sabres will bring back a nearly identical defensive core to last season as they improved dramatically in keeping the puck out of their net. During the 2022-23 NHL season Buffalo finished 26th in the league in goals against per game with a 3.62 mark and watched it fall to 2.96 this past season which was good for 11th in the league. If the defensive can hold strong and the offense can rebound to the tenacity it showed during the 2022-23 season, the Sabres should be well positioned to earn a playoff spot this upcoming season.
Buffalo now has approximately $13.7MM left in cap space to work with and new contracts are needed for remaining restricted free agents Peyton Krebs, Beck Malenstyn, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. None of the three should eat much into that number especially if the Sabres can keep them on shorter-term contracts.