Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - NHL Free Agency is well underway across the league, and a few familiar faces with the Buffalo Sabres have now moved on to new homes via free agency.
Perhaps the most notable departure for the Sabres this offseason is forward Zemgus Girgensons, who was the longest-tenured player after 10 seasons with the team. He has elected to take his talents to Tampa Bay to sign a three-year, $2.55 million contract with the Lightning.
Girgensons was originally drafted by the Sabres in the first round (14th overall) of the 2012 NHL Draft. After a full season playing in Rochester during the 2012-13 campaign, Girgensons was able to make the roster in Buffalo as a full-time NHLer the next year.
Over the course of 688 games with the Sabres, Girgensons was able to score 89 goals and add 99 assists for 188 points.
The Latvian-born forward's best season in Buffalo came during his second season in the NHL during the 2014-15 campaign. Girgensons put up career best numbers in goals (15), assists (15) and points (30), and was voted to the NHL All-Star Game that year by the fans.
However, from that point forward, Girgensons failed to eclipse 20 points in a season playing as, primarily, a bottom-six forward.
Despite that, Girgensons showed his continued loyalty to the Sabres over the years, signing a total of five contract extensions with the team after originally joining the organization in 2012.
Another notable departure came over the weekend with the buyout of winger Jeff Skinner after six seasons in Buffalo.
Skinner first joined the Sabres just before the 2018-19 season in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes. After his first season in Buffalo, where he scored 40 goals, Skinner signed a massive eight-year contract extension before hitting the market as an unrestricted free agent.
Over the course of 427 games played with the Sabres, the 32-year-old went on to score 153 goals and add 138 assists for 291 points.
So far in 14 NHL seasons with the Sabres and Hurricanes, Skinner has scored 357 goals and registered 313 assists for 670 points in 1,006 games played. However, Skinner has the longest active streak of games played in the NHL without appearing in the playoffs.
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Thanks to the buyout, Skinner was able to text the market on Monday as an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career. Luckily for Skinner, his playoff drought may finally come to an end this upcoming season after signing a one-year contract worth $3 million with the Edmonton Oilers.
Skinner joins the defending Western Conference champions, who came up just short in the Stanley Cup Final of completing a reverse sweep of the Florida Panthers. He also joins a group in Edmonton that already consists of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and others that have not missed the playoffs since the 2018-19 campaign.
A number of other former Sabres players ended up finding new homes in the opening hours of free agency on Monday. This included:
- C - Tyson Jost (Signed by Hurricanes to a one-year, $775,000 contract)
- LW - Eric Robinson (Signed by Hurricanes to a one-year, $950,000 contract)
- G - Eric Comrie (Signed by Jets to a two-year, $1.65 million contract)
Then on Tuesday, another prominent player in Buffalo from recent years found his new home on the free agent market. This time, it was winger Victor Olofsson signing a one-year contract with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Originally a seventh-round pick (181st overall) in the 2014 NHL Draft, Olofsson took some time to further develop his game in Sweden before making the jump to play professionally in North America.
After signing his entry-level contract in the 2018 offseason, Olofsson got his first NHL action at the tail end of the 2018-19 season when he scored two goals and added a pair of assists for four points in six games played.
From there, Olofsson was able to skate in 314 total games for the Sabres, scoring 90 goals and adding 92 assists for 182 points. While this past season was a bit of a down season for the 28-year-old, his best year came during his 2021-22 season when he scored 20 goals and added 29 assists for 49 points in 72 games.
What made Olofsson so potent with the Sabres for the longest time was his one-time shot from the off-wing on the power play.
Be sure to follow along with all the offseason moves surrounding the Sabres with our tracker here:
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