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Sabres Rumors

Nathan Beaulieu Announces Retirement

July 23, 2025 at 9:21 am CDT | by Josh Erickson Leave a Comment

Former first-round pick Nathan Beaulieu has announced his retirement from professional hockey, according to the NHLPA.

Beaulieu, 32, hangs up his skates after playing 471 NHL games for the Canadiens, Sabres, Jets, and Ducks. The longtime bottom-pairing defenseman last appeared with Anaheim in the 2022-23 season, spending the last two campaigns in Europe but playing sparingly due to injuries.

The Ontario native was the No. 17 overall pick of the 2011 draft by Montreal from the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs after helping guide the team to a Memorial Cup championship and being named to the tournament’s All-Star team. He was a tantalizing junior prospect, never outright dominating offensively but still putting up strong point production with dominant defensive impacts while playing a highly physical brand of hockey.

While his physicality translated to the professional level, the other parts of his game only did so in short bursts. Beaulieu only ever topped 20 points in a season once, making a career-high 74 appearances for Montreal in 2016-17 while receiving significant power-play deployment for the only time in his career. He averaged 19:29 per game for the Habs that year, putting together a 4-24–28 scoring line with 102 blocks.

Aside from that, he was still a serviceable bottom-pairing piece for the Habs for a few years after emerging as a full-time NHLer in 2014-15. He ended up recording 60 points and a +19 rating in 225 games for the team that drafted him before he was traded to the Sabres in the 2017 offseason.

After the trade, Beaulieu was firmly relegated to being a No. 7 option. He never made more than 60 appearances in a season after that relative breakout of a 2016-17 campaign, averaging 15:27 per game for Buffalo, Winnipeg, and Anaheim over his final six NHL seasons.

Beaulieu’s final NHL season saw him thrown to the wolves on a severely understaffed Ducks defense in 2022-23, recording four points and a -23 rating in 52 games with ghastly possession numbers. That tanked his value the following summer and led to his move overseas to Switzerland’s EHC Kloten, where he only had two points in 13 games before a hand injury ended his season.

The veteran lefty signed on with Barys Astana of the KHL for 2024-25, but was released after eight games with financial issues forcing the club to part ways with all of its import players. He quickly landed with HC Nove Zamky of the Slovak Extraliga but did not make an appearance for them due to injury.

Beaulieu finishes his career with 12 goals, 86 assists, 98 points, and a -14 rating in 471 regular-season games while averaging 16:18 per night. He also had five points in 21 playoff games with Montreal and Winnipeg. All of us at PHR wish him the best in retirement.

Anaheim Ducks| Buffalo Sabres| Montreal Canadiens| Retirement| Retirements| Winnipeg Jets Nathan Beaulieu

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Arbitration Schedule For Remaining Cases Finalized

July 22, 2025 at 12:26 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 3 Comments

The arbitration hearing dates for the few remaining unsettled cases have been finalized, PuckPedia reports:

F Kaapo Kakko, Kraken: July 25

G Arvid Soderblom, Blackhawks: July 28

F Maxim Tsyplakov, Islanders: July 29

D Dylan Samberg, Jets: July 30

D Conor Timmins, Sabres: Aug. 2

F Nicholas Robertson, Maple Leafs: Aug. 3

D Jayden Struble, Canadiens: Aug. 3

There are only seven out of this year’s initial 11 player-elected arbitration cases still without a resolution as the hearings approach. Winnipeg had three of the players on that list and has settled with two of them, reaching a two-year, $3.7MM settlement with Morgan Barron and a substantial six-year, $45MM deal for Gabriel Vilardi.

The Ducks also had two arbitration cases on that list, but settled with both of them in the past few days. Depth defenseman Drew Helleson got a two-year, $2.2MM contract, while emerging star goaltender Lukas Dostal signed a five-year, $32.5MM deal.

There were two team-elected arbitration cases this year, the Sabres’ Bowen Byram and the Mammoth’s Jack McBain, but both have been settled.

As for the seven players above, they can continue talks with their clubs on a new deal until the hearing begins. After that, they’re bound to the arbitrator’s decision.

Players who reach an arbitration hearing are only eligible to sign a one or two-year contract. Since the player filed for arbitration in all seven cases above, the team gets to choose the contract length after receiving the arbitrator’s decision on the AAV. However, only Robertson, Soderblom, and Struble would be eligible for two-year contracts. Everyone else is one year away from being eligible for unrestricted free agency status, so they can’t receive a multi-year arbitration award.

If the arbitration award exceeds $4.85MM in any case, the team can decline it and allow the player to become an unrestricted free agent.

Anaheim Ducks| Arbitration| Buffalo Sabres| CBA| Chicago Blackhawks| Free Agency| Montreal Canadiens| New York Islanders| Newsstand| Players| Schedule| Seattle Kraken| Toronto Maple Leafs| Utah Mammoth| Winnipeg Jets Arvid Soderblom| Bowen Byram| Conor Timmins| Drew Helleson| Dylan Samberg| Free Agency| Gabriel Vilardi| Jack McBain| Jayden Struble| Kaapo Kakko| Lukas Dostal| Maxim Tsyplakov| Morgan Barron| Nicholas Robertson

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International Notes: Vecchione, Andersson, Ratkovic-Berndtsson, Jurmo, Dickinson

July 22, 2025 at 11:47 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 4 Comments

Veteran farmhand Mike Vecchione has signed on with Traktor Chelyabinsk of the Kontinental Hockey League, Tony Androckitis of Inside AHL Hockey reports. The Hershey Bears, where Vecchione had spent the last four seasons on both two-way deals with the Capitals and AHL-only contracts, said Monday that he would be heading overseas.

Vecchione, 32, last played in the NHL in a one-game call-up for Washington in the 2021-22 season. It was just his third career appearance, and he saw just over five minutes of ice time in a shootout win over the Hurricanes late in the year.

After also spending the following season on a two-way deal with the Capitals but not seeing any NHL recalls, Washington opted not to re-sign him. He remained in the organization on AHL contracts with the Bears, though, and finished fifth on the club in scoring last season with a 19-20–39 line in 68 games.

The former Union College standout was never drafted, but after erupting for an NCAA-leading 63 points in 38 games in his senior season at Union, he was the top college free agent in 2017 and made his NHL debut with the Flyers to end the season. Unfortunately, that never turned into anything resembling a full-time NHL role. The 5’10” forward has remained almost exclusively in the AHL ever since, recording 300 points in 473 career games over the last eight years with stops in Lehigh Valley, San Antonio, Colorado, and Hershey.

Vecchione is the second player who spent last season with the Bears to sign with Traktor in the past few days. Pierrick Dube, who was under an NHL contract with Washington for the last two years but was non-tendered last month, signed with them a few days back.

Here’s more from international waters:

  • Former lottery pick Lias Andersson has signed a two-year extension with Switzerland’s EHC Biel-Bienne through the 2027-28 season, the team announced. The 2017 No. 7 overall pick by the Rangers headed to the National League club last summer after being non-tendered by the Canadiens and flourished, recording a 15-18–33 scoring line in 40 contests to lead the team in points per game (0.825). He’ll turn 27 in October, and the chances of him ever building on his 110-game NHL career remain slim, but he’s surely happy with the fit after a couple of years of strong AHL production, with few additional NHL chances to show for it.
  • The Sabres have until June 1, 2026, to sign 2022 seventh-round pick Joel Ratkovic-Berndtsson before losing his rights, something they don’t appear likely to do based on his development trajectory so far. The 21-year-old just signed a one-year deal with Karlskrona HK, putting him in Sweden’s third-tier pro league – HockeyEttan – for 2025-26. The 6’0″ winger also spent most of last season in that league with Vasterviks IK, where he impressed with 29 points in 28 games, but failing to climb into a regular role in even the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan at this stage of his development is essentially a disqualifier for any NHL potential. He only recorded one assist in nine second-tier games last season while on loan to Tingsryds AIF.
  • As expected, former Flames prospect Joni Jurmo has returned home after mutually terminating his entry-level contract earlier this month. The defenseman has signed a one-year deal with Liiga’s Kiekko-Espoo, per a club announcement. He last played in Finland’s top level in 2023-24, limited to five points and a plus-three rating across 46 games for Ilves and KooKoo.
  • After being non-tendered by the Blues last month, center Tanner Dickinson is headed to the Slovak Extraliga to play with HC Presov, the team announced on its Facebook page. St. Louis let the 23-year-old become an unrestricted free agent after he scored 15 points in 57 games for the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds last season. A 2020 fourth-round pick who had good scoring numbers in juniors, COVID and injuries completely derailed his development. The Ohio native only played 38 games combined in his first three post-draft seasons, only three of which were professional.

Buffalo Sabres| KHL| Liiga| NLA| Transactions Joel Ratkovic-Berndtsson| Joni Jurmo| Lias Andersson| Mike Vecchione| Tanner Dickinson

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Bowen Byram Sees Upside In Staying With Buffalo

July 20, 2025 at 6:11 pm CDT | by Paul Griser 2 Comments

The Buffalo Sabres recently reached a deal with restricted free agent Bowen Byram ahead of arbitration, putting an end to months of trade speculation and talks of a potential split. With the dust now settled following his two-year contract worth $6.25 million per season, Byram admits that re-signing with the Sabres made sense on several levels, including the opportunity it offers for a bigger role, per NHL.com’s Justin Alpert.

“Personally, I’ve been pretty happy with my time in Buffalo,” he said. “I think I’ve mentioned it before that I’ve got an opportunity to play a bigger role and play more minutes, whether it’s the offensive side, power play, penalty kill. So, I’m happy with that.”

To that point, Byram averaged a career-high 22:42 of ice time last season, largely playing alongside all-star Rasmus Dahlin. Byram, selected fourth overall in the 2019 draft, is also coming off his best statistical season (38 points), and perhaps most importantly, the often-injured defenseman appeared in all 82 games. And at just 24 years old, it’s reasonable to anticipate continued growth.

Speaking about the opportunity to play with Dahlin, Byram said it supports his development, specifically defensively, calling Dahlin, “one of the best defensemen in the world.”

“When I’m playing with him, I just try to take care of the defensive side of the puck, make sure that I’m hanging back and giving him the freedom to get up ice and join the play and do his thing,” he said.

As Alpert points out, Byram and Dahlin tied for the league lead with a plus-20 goal differential at five-on-five, matching the mark set by what many consider the NHL’s top defensive pairing — Colorado’s Cale Makar and Devon Toews, former teammates of Byram. Byram acknowledged that Dahlin would be the Makar of their duo, but believes his abilities can mirror what Toews is capable of.

“Looking back now, I think I got to learn a lot from just watching those two,” Byram said. “You have a guy like Cale Makar, very similar to Rasmus, and I hope to try to be a player of Toews’ caliber. Whether it’s now or down the road, that’s what I look to continue to build towards,” he said.

2025 Free Agency| Buffalo Sabres Bowen Byram

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Yevgeni Prokhorov Signs KHL Tryout Deal

July 19, 2025 at 9:35 am CDT | by Brian La Rose 2 Comments

  • Sabres prospect Yevgeni Prokhorov has signed a tryout deal with Dinamo Minsk of the KHL, per a team announcement on its Telegram page. The netminder was a seventh-round pick last month after spending last season in Dinamo’s MHL program where he posted a 2.19 GAA and a .903 SV% in 28 games.  Prokhorov was a first-round pick in last month’s CHL Import Draft, going 23rd overall to OHL Flint, leading to some speculation that he could come to North America but it appears that isn’t on the table at the moment.

Buffalo Sabres| KHL| New York Rangers| OHL| Ottawa Senators Artemi Panarin| Yevgeni Prokhorov

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The Sabres Are Still Stuck In Neutral

July 18, 2025 at 10:02 am CDT | by Josh Cybulski 14 Comments

The Buffalo Sabres haven’t made the playoffs in a long time. They set an NHL record this season by missing the postseason for 14 consecutive seasons, and don’t appear to be on track to break that streak this season.

The last time the Sabres played in a playoff game was a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on April 26th, 2011. To put the event into perspective, consider that current NHL general managers Mike Grier and Daniel Briere participated in the game, and over on NBC, the television series The Voice premiered that night.

Buffalo has been stuck in a constant state of rebuilding that hasn’t managed to gain any momentum. Just a few seasons ago, it looked like the Sabres were on the verge of becoming a contender. Still, a series of poor trades, bad signings, and unfortunate player development have kept the Sabres at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.

The fans in Buffalo are no doubt eager for something to cheer about, but unfortunately, the team hasn’t been able to satisfy that desire. The bad news for Buffalo is that much of their problems are self-inflicted, and since they haven’t course-corrected this summer, it’s fair to wonder: when will they turn things around?

It’s not as if Buffalo hasn’t had their fair share of good luck in the draft, selecting some terrific players late in the process, including Linus Ullmark in the sixth round back in 2012, Victor Olofsson in the seventh round in 2014, and Brandon Hagel in the sixth round in 2016. They’ve also managed to draft franchise cornerstones like Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power.

However, where the team has fallen short – arguably the most glaring issue in drafting and development – is that they haven’t been able to retain their stars or have traded them away for little value.

The most obvious example here is Sam Reinhart, who was drafted second overall in 2014 and scored 20+ goals in five of his six seasons with the Buffalo Sabres, including 25 goals in his final year during the shortened 2020-21 season. The Sabres then traded Reinhart in the summer of 2021 for a return that included goaltender Devon Levi and a first-round pick that was later used to select Jiri Kulich.

Now, Reinhart had one year left on his contract, and many felt he wouldn’t sign long-term with Buffalo as they were rebuilding, even though Reinhart said otherwise. The trade could still work out for Buffalo, depending on Levi’s development and how 21-year-old Kulich progresses.

However, for Reinhart and the Panthers, it has been a great match, having reached the Stanley Cup Final three times and won two championships. Reinhart was a solid player for Buffalo, but in Florida, he has reached another level and become a key part of the Panthers’ team, averaging a point per game. The emergence of players like him has become a bit of a theme for former Sabres, as shown by our next star.

Not many people would have predicted that Ullmark would develop into a Vezina Trophy winner; however, there were signs that he was better than his numbers in Buffalo. Ullmark spent two seasons with the Sabres’ AHL affiliate in Rochester and was one of the top netminders in the league before making the full-time jump to the NHL.

He began his career as a backup for Carter Hutton but quickly took the starting job, posting a 50-47-13 career record with the Sabres, along with a 2.78 goals-against average and a .912 SV%. In the summer of 2021, the Swedish netminder moved to Boston, where he thrived with the heavyweight Bruins and left Sabres fans wondering what might have been.

There are likely several personal and professional reasons why Ullmark chose to leave Buffalo. Still, it was ultimately clear that the Sabres were pivoting towards a rebuild around the time of his departure.

Another missed opportunity, and perhaps one of the most painful, is Hagel. The Sabres chose to give up his rights back in 2018, and he later signed an ELC with the Chicago Blackhawks before being traded to Tampa Bay for two first-round picks.

Hagel recently represented Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off and has become a genuine top-six player at the age of 26. It’s another clear example of Buffalo getting things right at the draft but missing out on player retention. Now, Hagel is undoubtedly a different case than Reinhart and Ullmark, but it shows how deep the Sabres’ issues run.

Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams has taken some heat in recent years, and rightfully so, since he is responsible for building the roster. However, his record includes three situations that have aged so poorly they overshadow his entire GM resume.

The Reinhart trade with Florida was mentioned earlier and could turn out alright in the future, but the situation doesn’t look good right now. The other two major missteps were the Jack Eichel deal with Vegas, which brought in a couple of good players but none of Eichel’s calibre.

The trade wasn’t that bad, but the worst part of the Eichel saga was the lead-up to the move. Then there is the Brandon Montour trade with Florida. The Montour trade is especially painful and quite different from the other two moves. But, each of these situations led Buffalo to trade away the best player in each deal, only to see those players raise the Stanley Cup with their new team.

Now, Adams’ moves haven’t been all bad. The trade for defenseman Bowen Byram looks like a win, given the decline of Casey Mittelstadt, and the Ryan McLeod trade with Edmonton also looks like a decent move.

The Sabres have managed to bring in players with potential, but it never seems to catapult the Sabres into a winning team. Getting Alex Tuch in the Eichel deal was a nice story, and he’s had some good years, but he could follow so many before him in less than 12 months when he becomes an unrestricted free agent.

All of this brings us to the current Sabres, who are once again fresh off trading away a talented young player. The Sabres traded JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth just a month ago in exchange for forward Josh Doan and defenseman Michael Kesselring.

The 23-year-old Peterka scored 27 goals and 41 assists in 77 games last season and was quick to sign a five-year extension with the Mammoth following the trade, something he wasn’t willing to do in Buffalo. Now, the verdict is still out on this trade because all three players involved are pretty young and aren’t yet finished products, but the return felt underwhelming at the time of the deal.

There does seem to be a pattern with players not signing long-term with the Sabres and opting to move to other cities. However, the Sabres have managed to secure their core players—Dahlin, Power, and Tage Thompson—with long-term contracts.

That said, it’s concerning that many players appear content to either ride out their current contract and bolt or use their leverage to pursue a trade. This doesn’t necessarily mean Reinhart or Ullmark did that, but it could explain a lot.

So here the Sabres are, down another potential star player in a long line of such players who never flourished in Buffalo. Sabres fans have watched star after star march to the Stanley Cup Final with other NHL teams without so much as a sniff of the playoffs in Buffalo. It’s a testament to Sabres fans that they continue to cheer for an organization that hasn’t given them much to cheer about in the last decade and a half, but it demonstrates the dedication of the fan base.

Photo by Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

Buffalo Sabres| Pro Hockey Rumors Originals

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Sabres, Jake Leschyshyn Agree To Two-Way Deal

July 16, 2025 at 12:45 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 7 Comments

3:13 p.m.: The Sabres have made Leschyshyn’s signing official.

12:45 p.m.: Free agent center Jake Leschyshyn has signed a two-way contract with the Sabres, according to PuckPedia. He will earn $775K in the NHL and $350K in the AHL with a $400K guarantee.

Leschyshyn, a second-round pick by the Golden Knights in their inaugural 2017 draft class, now joins his third NHL organization. He’d spent parts of the last three seasons in the Rangers’ system, primarily with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, after they claimed him off waivers from Vegas during the 2022-23 campaign. He hasn’t seen NHL action since Jan. 11, 2024, his only major-league appearance that season.

In 69 regular-season outings for Hartford last season, he scored 13 goals and 11 assists for 24 points with a particularly eye-popping -35 rating, third-worst in the league behind teammate Jaroslav Chmelar’s -37 mark and defenseman Samuel Bolduc’s -38 rating for the Bridgeport Islanders.

The 5’11” pivot will not have much of a chance at an NHL roster spot in Buffalo as a result and will only serve as veteran insurance for their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, assuming he clears waivers during training camp. In 77 total NHL games for Vegas and New York across three seasons, Leschyshyn has a 2-4–6 scoring line with a -13 rating while averaging 10:15 per game.

Buffalo has now filled 43 of its 50 contract slots for this season. They have two restricted free agents left to sign: Conor Timmins, who is in an arbitration case, and goaltender Devon Levi.

Buffalo Sabres| Transactions Jake Leschyshyn

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Sabres Sign Radim Mrtka To Entry-Level Contract

July 15, 2025 at 9:44 am CDT | by Gabriel Foley 2 Comments

The Buffalo Sabres have signed towering defenseman Radim Mrtka to a three-year, entry-level contract. The team recently selected Mrtka with the ninth overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. He hails from Czechia, but spent the better half of last season with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL.  PuckPedia reports that the deal will carry a cap hit of $975K while Mrtka will be eligible for $1MM in Class A performance bonuses per season, making the AAV $1.975MM.

Mrtka is, in a lot of ways, a truly rare defender. He was among the tallest in his draft class – third tallest at the NHL combine – but skates with a fluidity and confidence on the puck that’s simply second-to-none. Mrtka has no issue in transitioning from defense to offense, plus the awareness and stickhandling to drive play confidently through all three zones. He was often the flashy perimeter playmaker making passes to Vancouver Canucks first-round pick Braeden Cootes in the slot. That duo helped Mrtka reach 32 assists and 35 points in 43 WHL games this season, after beginning the year with four assists in 10 games of Czechia’s U20 league.

Mrtka was a perfectionist in Czechia’s junior leagues prior to moving to Canada. He scored 11 points in 19 U20 games last season, and earned the first three games of his pro hockey career in Czechia’s Extraliga. He also attended eight games of the World U-17 Hockey Challenge, scoring four points, and five games of the World U18 Championships, with no scoring. He returned to the latter tournament this season, and managed four points in five games.

With news of his entry-level contract, Mrtka will firmly set himself up for a return to the WHL’s Seattle, unless he can make the Sabres roster out of training camp. He’ll use a full year in juniors to continue honing his stocky, puck-moving talent into something that can jump to the NHL in the years to come. It’s rare for defenders with this mix of size and skill to not pan out – and Mrtka seems well on the way to walking in the path of 6-foot-8 defenseman Tyler Myers.

Like Mrtka, Myers returned to the WHL for one season after his draft selection, before breaking into the NHL with 11 goals and 48 points in the 2009-10 season – enough to win out the 2010 Calder Trophy for ’Rookie of the Year’. Myers has since scored 395 points in 1,066 career games. Mrtka even wore Myers’ #53 when he took the ice for Buffalo’s post-draft development camp, despite spending the season wearing #21 in Seattle.

2025 NHL Draft| Buffalo Sabres| NHL| Newsstand| Transactions| WHL Radim Mrtka

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Sabres, Bowen Byram Avoid Arbitration With Two-Year Deal

July 14, 2025 at 9:20 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 19 Comments

The Sabres have settled with restricted free agent defenseman Bowen Byram before their arbitration hearing, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK reports. It’s a two-year contract worth $6.25MM per season, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet adds. The team has since confirmed the signing.

The contract, worth $12.5MM in total, could still be part of a sign-and-trade involving Byram, whose name more seriously popped up in trade speculation early in the offseason ahead of what he hoped would be a big payday for him. Instead, the young rearguard settles for another “show-me” bridge deal, one that notably walks him to his first UFA-eligible year in 2027, giving him better earning potential on a long-term deal than he has now, assuming he continues an upward trajectory.

Byram, selected No. 4 overall in the 2019 draft by the Avalanche, struggled with concussions early and often in his development but has enjoyed healthier campaigns in recent years. After getting his name on the Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2022, they signed him to a two-year, $7.7MM bridge deal the following summer. Before he completed the first season of the contract, Colorado, looking to upgrade its center group, dealt Byram to Buffalo in a surprise one-for-one trade for Casey Mittelstadt.

While few things have gone right for the Sabres in the last decade-plus, that trade was one of them. Colorado no longer has Mittelstadt or the veteran they ended up trading him for, Charlie Coyle, on their roster. Byram, meanwhile, could still be poised to play another couple of seasons in Buffalo – multiple reports have indicated he’s open to staying long-term as long as the money is of interest.

Byram’s best NHL season came last year in top-pairing deployment with Rasmus Dahlin. While a bit of an awkward fit at first glance with two lefties, Byram managed a career-high with 38 points and a +11 rating while averaging nearly 23 minutes per game and, perhaps more importantly, played in all 82 contests. He’s now missed just nine games over the last two years after missing more than half of the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons combined.

Byram notably did not file for arbitration, leaving himself susceptible to an offer sheet. Still, the Sabres negated that threat the following day when they opted for team-elected arbitration. That move limited their ability to walk away if they didn’t like the award and allowed Byram to choose between a one-year or a two-year term. Even without a hearing, Byram likely gets his wish here with a chance to test unrestricted free agency as early in his career as possible.

Still just 24, Byram’s 116 blocks co-led the team last year, although his possession impacts, with a noticeable discrepancy between his and Dahlin’s even-strength Corsi shares, are cause for concern. Both Buffalo and Byram, for his market value’s sake, will count on his defensive play to improve as the Sabres aim to make the postseason for the first time since 2011, assuming he remains in Western New York come opening night.

Image courtesy of Jeff Curry-Imagn Images.

Arbitration| Buffalo Sabres| Newsstand| Transactions Bowen Byram

19 comments

Zac Dalpe Announces Retirement

July 7, 2025 at 9:32 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 4 Comments

Longtime minor-league forward Zac Dalpe, who appeared in parts of 12 NHL seasons with numerous clubs over the past two decades, has announced his retirement via an open letter published on the Charlotte Checkers’ website.

Dalpe, 35, scored 16 goals, 16 assists, and 32 points with a -37 rating in 168 career regular-season games with the Blue Jackets, Panthers, Wild, Canucks, Sabres, and Hurricanes, who drafted him No. 45 overall back in 2008. He made 16 playoff appearances, 13 of which came in Florida’s run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2023.

The versatile center/winger spent more time in the AHL with Charlotte than anywhere else, including as their captain for the last four seasons while under contract with the Panthers. They were also the Hurricanes’ minor-league affiliate when he was in Carolina’s system. He scored 131 goals and 238 points in 362 games there across seven campaigns, sitting third in franchise history in goals.

“Pulling that Checkers sweater over my head and walking through the redline club on the way out to the bright lights will always be stapled in my head,” Dalpe said in his letter, which is truly worth a full read. “It started here and now it shall end here. I’m proud of what I got to do, but more importantly, I’m so proud of who I got to do it with. I appreciate every single person that was along for the greatest ride of my life. A Canadian kid got to be a hockey player for 15 years.”

While Dalpe never won a Stanley or Calder Cup, he was a two-time AHL All-Star and was part of the league’s All-Rookie Team back in 2010-11. He finishes his career with 220 goals, 172 assists, and 392 points in 574 AHL games. Only seven players have spent more seasons in the league than Dalpe’s 16.

Before turning pro, Dalpe was a star at Ohio State, where he scored 70 points in 76 games in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons. He was a CCHA First Team All-Star in his second and final collegiate season.

All of us at PHR wish Dalpe the best in the next phase of his life and career and congratulate him on such a lengthy run of high-end play in the pros.

Image courtesy of James Guillory-Imagn Images.

AHL| Buffalo Sabres| Carolina Hurricanes| Columbus Blue Jackets| Florida Panthers| Minnesota Wild| Retirement| Vancouver Canucks Zac Dalpe

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