The Buffalo Sabres didn’t just trade for Olen Zellweger last month. They also made a bet on what comes next.
After general manager Jarmo Kekalainen landed the 22-year-old defenseman from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for prospect Anton Wahlberg and the No. 45 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, Buffalo locked him up on a three-year, $9.3 million deal with a $3.1 million average annual value. That contract has already earned outside praise, with Harman Dayal of The Athletic placing it among the nine best deals signed so far in NHL free agency.
“After trading Bowen Byram and [Michael] Kesselring, the Sabres needed to add some secondary skating and puck-moving to the back end,” Dayal wrote Thursday. “Zellweger is an excellent budget option to fill that hole. He isn't nearly as established as Byram yet and his ceiling is likely lower, especially as a 5-foot-10 defenseman, but the upside of his game is tantalizing.”
That upside is the whole play here. Zellweger, a 2021 first-round pick who twice won the Bill Hunter Memorial Trophy as the WHL’s Defenseman of the Year, is arriving in Buffalo after a promising but unfinished start to his NHL career with Anaheim.
Last season, he put up 22 points, including seven goals and 15 assists, in 76 games while averaging just under 17 minutes per night. Nineteen of those points came at even strength, and he added 85 blocked shots.
The numbers underneath the surface were encouraging too: a 51.2% expected goal share and a 51.9% high-danger chance share at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick. HockeyStats.com has his three-year weighted wins above replacement in the 69th percentile among NHL defensemen.
Buffalo is clearly banking on that trend line continuing. The Sabres opened up room on the blue line after Byram was dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks, and Zellweger is now positioned to take on a bigger offensive role. He’ll still be an RFA when this bridge deal expires in 2029, which gives the organization more flexibility down the road.
The financial angle matters here, too. Buffalo couldn’t justify paying Byram the kind of money he got from Chicago - a six-year extension worth $12.5 million in salary - to play on the second pair with limited power-play time. That’s why cheaper additions like Zellweger and Louis Crevier, who came back in the Byram package from Chicago, made sense for Kekalainen.
The Sabres also sent winger Alex Tuch to the Washington Capitals in a sign-and-trade that brought back a $10.5 million AAV extension, another move that has left Buffalo in a much better spot financially now and going forward.
On the ice, Zellweger is expected to be asked to help replace some of the transition and offense Byram provided. He likes to jump into the rush with his skating, and if he earns a second-pair role alongside Owen Power - plus some time on the No. 2 power-play unit - his production should climb. Both of those paths are on the table if he has a strong training camp.
There’s still a catch. Lindy Ruff wants defensive reliability from his bottom-four defensemen, and that’s an area where Zellweger still has work to do. He could end up moving between the second and third pairs depending on the matchup and the situation.
Buffalo will hope his work in the defensive zone improves enough that he can settle in as a full-time top-four option, but there are real questions about whether his 5-foot-10 frame will allow that. He may wind up being more of a matchup defender than a permanent fixture in the upper part of the lineup.
For now, the Sabres do have other options. Crevier and Conor Timmins are both more defensively oriented and could rotate in next to Power at times, especially early in the season.
Long term, though, Buffalo’s blue line looks loaded with possibility. Power, Rasmus Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson form the core, while Zellweger and Crevier are trying to prove they can be part of the answer. Behind them, the prospect pool is led by two top-10 picks, Radim Mrtka and Daxon Rudolph.
That’s what makes Zellweger such an interesting piece of the puzzle. By the time his contract is up, the competition for jobs on Buffalo’s defense could be fierce.
Even if Kekalainen eventually uses a player like Mrtka in a blockbuster trade, the pressure on Zellweger won’t go away. The opportunity is real, but so is the challenge.
In Other News...
Why Bowen Byram Wanted Out Should Sting Sabres Fans
Bowen Byrams exit from Buffalo is the kind of move that can linger with a fan base, not just because he was dealt, but because the Sabres watched him land in Chicago and quickly commit long term. The Blackhawks gave him the kind of security Buffalo could not, and the new deal only sharpens the sense that the Sabres were never able to get ahead of the situation before it reached the trade market.
For Buffalo, the aftermath is already showing up on the blue line, where the club is sorting through new pairings and trying to see which defensemen can stabilize the group around Owen Power. There is enough depth to keep the conversation going, but not enough certainty to make the move feel painless, and the next few months will say plenty about whether the Sabres can turn the return into something that softens the loss. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres May Have A Defense Prospect Fans Need To Watch Closely
Buffalos blue-line future got a lot more interesting when the Sabres used the fourth overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft on Daxon Rudolph, a defenseman prospect whose skill set has already drawn plenty of attention. Prospect analyst Steven Ellis slotted Rudolph behind only Konsta Helenius in the organizations prospect hierarchy, pointing to the kind of puck skills and hockey sense that tend to travel well as players climb the ladder.
For a Sabres system that is still sorting out its long-term shape on defense, Rudolph stands out as a player who could eventually matter in a big way. The fit is easy to see after the Bowen Byram trade, especially if Buffalo is still looking for another puck-carrying defenseman to complement Rasmus Dahlin, while other prospects like Radim Mrtka remain more of a longer-view project than an immediate answer. [Read more 🡒]