While it’s important to sign up all your first rounders because they have the best chance of making it to a NHL starting roster, when players from the lower round show that kind of potential it’s equally important to secure their futures as well.
The Buffalo Sabres have a roster littered with top round picks, but one of the players that made a huge jump last season has now been signed up for the long term as well. Mattias Samuelsson had a breakout year in 2021-22 and the Sabres have now handed him a seven-year, $30 million deal that will keep him in Buffalo for a long time.