Buffalo Sabres re-sign captain Kyle Okposo to one-year, $2.5 million contract

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The revamped Buffalo Sabres can count on veteran Kyle Okposo for at least one more season after the team captain signed a one-year, $2.5 million contract Wednesday.

The 35-year-old’s re-signing was expected after the player and team expressed mutual interest in his return once Buffalo’s season ended last month. Okposo was eligible to become an unrestricted free agent after completing a seven-year, $42 million contract, and has the opportunity to continue leading a team that is finally showing signs of competitiveness.

Despite extending the worst playoff drought in NHL history to a 12th season, the Sabres missed a playoff berth by two points and finished with 42 wins and 91 points, their highest total since their last playoff appearance in 2011.

“I’m extremely proud to be a part of this group and see how far we’ve come. We’ve become a team,” Okposo said after Buffalo was eliminated with two games remaining.

“It’s the first time in a long time that we can say that about our team here,” he added. “It was extremely gratifying in a way, but at the same time extremely disappointing the way it ended.”

Okposo was credited with providing guidance and being the voice of a team that began the season with the youngest roster in the NHL. He was named captain to begin this season after serving as an alternate in 2021-22 when Buffalo stripped Jack Eichel of his captaincy before eventually trading him to Vegas.

While other players wanted to leave Buffalo because of the Sabres’ losing record, Okposo expressed his desire to stay because of the promise he saw in a team featuring rising young stars such as Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power.

Okposo has 11 goals and 28 points in 75 games, playing mostly as a defenseman. His best season in Buffalo came two years ago, when he scored 21 goals (his fourth 20-goal season) and 45 points.

A Minnesota native, Okposo spent his first nine seasons with the New York Islanders before signing with Buffalo as a free agent in July 2016. At the time, Okposo viewed the Eichel-led Sabres as contenders.

Although the team never played to its potential, Okposo eventually adopted Buffalo as his permanent home.

He continued to play despite his career being almost cut short by several injuries.

Okposo suffered a series of concussions, sustaining four over a three-year span from 2017 to 2019. That period was marked by concussion-related symptoms so severe that he spent nearly a week in the neurosurgical intensive care unit at Buffalo General Hospital after he began losing weight and had trouble sleeping following a routine hit in practice.

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