Fraser Minten signs a seven-year, $50.4 million deal with Boston on Tuesday.
The Buffalo Sabres have a ticking clock when it comes to signing a few of their young forwards to eight-year extensions before that length of deal becomes extinct on September 15. The Vancouver Canucks availed themselves of that option with signing of defenseman Zeev Buium to a max eight-year, $75.04 million deal that kicks in next season.
The Sabres division rival, the Boston Bruins, also locked up one of their youngsters in center Fraser Minten, to a seven-year, $50.4 million deal on Tuesday. The 22-year-old, who was obtained from the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Brandon Carlo deal, had 35 points (17 goals, 18 assists) in 82 games as a rookie, and next season will make $100,000 more than Sabres leading scorer Tage Thompson currently makes on his long-term deal.
The Sabres have historically been proactive in signing players to long term deals, with former GM Jason Botterill locking up Jack Eichel for eight years, center Dylan Cozens, and Thompson, defensemen Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, and Mattias Samuelsson, and goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen signed by former GM Kevyn Adams, and more recently forwards Zach Benson and Josh Doan extended by GM Jarmo Kekalainen.
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Buffalo has three forwards in Noah Ostlund, Jiri Kulich and Jack Quinn entering the final year of their deals. Ostlund and Kulich were both selected in the same draft class and are the same age as Minten, and are entering the final year of their entry-level deals, while Quinn (who scored 20 goals last season) is in year two of a bridge deal.
Signing either Kulich or Ostlund would be risky propositions for the Sabres, but could yield a team-friendly result as Thompson’s deal did after his breakout 38-goal year in 2021-22. Kulich is coming off an abbreviated season due to a serious blood clot issue, but did score 15 goals as a rookie in 2024-25, and was playing in the top-six before being put on injured reserve. Ostlund scored 27 points in 60 games as a rookie, and is likely being relied on to pick up some of the scoring slack created by the departure of Alex Tuch via free agency.
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