Buffalo Sabres sign Linus Weissbach to one-year, $775,000 contract

Weissbach, 25, was a restricted free agent after the conclusion of his two-year, entry-level contract with a $842,500 cap hit. His new contract remains a two-way deal, so he’ll see a much smaller amount of pay in the AHL, although the details as to how much that will be have yet to be confirmed.

Weissbach saw some improvement in his sophomore season in the AHL, with 20 goals, 27 assists, and 47 points in 69 games with the Rochester Americans, all career-highs for him in the minors. He also had 3 goals, 7 assists, and 10 points in 12 playoff games with the Americans as they were eliminated in six games to the Hershey Bears in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Weissbach was a seventh-round pick of the Sabres in 2017 out of the USHL. He opted to take the college route post-draft, spending four years with the University of Wisconsin before signing his entry-level contract in 2021 and going pro with the Americans.

It’s been a relatively quiet offseason for the Sabres, mostly just adding defensemen Connor Clifton and Erik Johnson, as well as extending center Tyson Jost. They have just over $6.7 million cap space now with the extensions to Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens, and Mattias Samuelsson all beginning this season.

The Sabres will be looking to improve on their season that was a positive step forward and provided hope of the team finally being competitive again. They finished fifth in the Atlantic Division in 2022-23 with a 42-33-7 record, and were only a point behind the Florida Panthers for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Sabres currently have the longest playoff drought in NHL history, having not made the playoffs since 2011. By extension, they’re also tied for the eighth-longest playoff series win drought, tied for the ninth-longest Stanley Cup Finals drought, and are tied with the Vancouver Canucks as the oldest franchises to not win a Stanley Cup.