Former second-round pick returns to Sabres

The Buffalo Sabres have signed defenseman Kale Clague to a one-year, two-way contract worth $775,000.

The Sabres elected to not give him a qualifying offer prior to the June 30 deadline.

Clague returns to the Sabres after splitting the season between the big club and the AHL’s Rochester Americans. The 25-year-old had four assists in 33 NHL games, his biggest game output with a single team in his career. He also had six points in 14 games with the Americans.

The native of Regina, Saskatchewan, was drafted 51st overall in 2016 by the Los Angeles Kings. Clague made his NHL debut in 2019-20, failing to grab a point in four games with the club. He had 11 points in 29 games over the next two seasons with LA before Montreal picked him up on waivers midway through 2021-22.

There, Clague had five points in 25 games with the Canadiens, but the team elected to let him go over the summer. That’s when the Sabres picked him up, and now he’ll return to give the club some depth.

The Sabres have a busy blueline with nine other defensemen signed to deals. The club added Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton to deals on July 1, and still has a host of blueliners in the AHL, like Ryan Johnson, Nikita Novikov and Vsevolod Komarov. The club has $5.876M in cap space with no RFAs.