In TheHockeyNews.com's series grading Buffalo Sabres players, we're turning our attention to Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson. The veteran D-man took his game to a new level last season, and Samuelsson is one of Buffalo's biggest financial bargains. What grade did we give to Samuelsson?
Mattias Samuelsson (Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports)After 15 seasons without a single game of Stanley Cup playoff action, the Buffalo Sabres not only made the playoffs this past season – they earned first place in the highly-competitive Atlantic Division last year, then won their first-round series against the Boston Bruins before the Montreal Canadiens eliminated them in Round 2.
Because the Sabres did so well last season, TheHockeyNews.com’s annual grades for Buffalo players will be largely positive. And in this “Sabres Grades” file, we’re turning our attention to Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson. The 26-year-old Samuelsson is just coming into his prime, and as we’ll explore below, Samuelsson is on a terrific contract.
But money isn’t the only thing that makes Samuelsson so valuable to Buffalo. Samuelsson provides a strong game at both ends of the ice, and in this writer’s opinion, he was one of the Sabres’ all-around best contributors in 2025-26. But let’s explore why he deserves the highest mark we can give him:
Mattias Samuelsson
Position: Defense
Grade: A+
The Skinny: Samuelsson gets the A+ not because he was Buffalo’s best player, but rather, because he has quietly become one of the league’s top all-around D-men.
The chief criticism of Samuelsson has been that he’s had trouble staying healthy, but his 78-game performance in 2025-26 was the highest of his six-season NHL career. And Samuelsson also set new career-highs in goals (13), assists (28) and points (41) last year. By virtually every metric, Samuelsson was significantly at his absolute best, and Sabres coach Lindy Ruff relied on Samuelsson more than ever before.
The truth in that regard was apparent in a couple statistical areas in particular: the first was in Samuelsson’s time-on-ice usage; Samuelsson averaged 22:50 per-game last season – up more than three-and-a-half minutes from his 2024-25 average of 19:18, and up more than a minute-and-a-half from his career average of 21:01.
The other telling statistic we saw from Samuelsson is his plus/minus of plus-41. It’s true plus/minus is an imperfect statistic. But Samuelsson’s previous high in plus/minus is plus-14, which he set in 2022-23. Having a plus/minus nearly three-times better than your previous plus/minus total is an indication of growth in your game, and Samuelsson deserves credit for evolving into one of the league’s safest players.
Samuelsson’s annual salary of $4.285-million runs through the 2029-30 campaign, meaning that he’s going to be even more of a bargain. And given that he averaged more time on ice than Sabres young star D-man Owen Power last season, Samuelsson was clearly doing his part to make this Buffalo team as dangerous as they were last year.
Our A+ grade for Samuelsson shouldn’t be interpreted as a judgement he’s a perfect player. But his high panic threshold and confidence in his abilities make Samuelsson an extremely valuable contributor for Buffalo.
Samuelsson was one of the Sabres’ very best players last year, and as Buffalo focuses on having at least as good a season as their 2025-26 campaign, they’ll lean on Samuelsson to continue growing his game and remaining one of the Sabres’ most crucial components. Samuelsson doesn’t get the hype of Power and captain Rasmus Dahlin, but Samuelsson has shown why Sabres GM Jarmo Kekalainen was willing to trade veteran Bowen Byram to the Chicago Blackhawks this summer
Indeed, in Dahlin, Power and Samuelsson, Buffalo has a top-three group of D-men to rival just about any other team in the league. The Sabres can’t afford a backward step in 2026-27, but with Samuelsson functioning at the same level he functioned at last season, Buffalo has the horses on ‘D’ to carry them to the third round and beyond next year.
