BUFFALO, N.Y. — The younger, retooled Buffalo Sabres can depend on Kyle Okposo’s veteran presence for not less than yet one more season after the workforce captain signed a one-year, $2.5 million contract on Wednesday.
The 35-year-old’s re-signing was anticipated after each the participant and workforce expressed mutual curiosity in his return as soon as Buffalo’s season ended final month.
Okposo was eligible to turn into an unrestricted free agent after finishing a seven-year, $42 million contract, and will get a chance to proceed main a workforce lastly exhibiting indicators of being aggressive.
Regardless of extending an NHL-worst playoff drought to a twelfth season, the Sabres fell two factors in need of making the playoffs and completed with 42 wins and 91 factors — their most since final making the playoffs in 2011.
“I am extraordinarily proud to be part of this group and to see how far we have come. We have turn into a workforce,” Okposo stated after Buffalo was eradicated with two video games left. “And that is the primary time in a very long time that I feel we will say that about our squad right here.
“It was extraordinarily gratifying in a approach, however on the similar time extraordinarily disappointing with the way it ended.”
Okposo was credited for offering steerage and serving because the voice of a workforce that started the season with the NHL’s youngest roster. He was appointed captain to start out this season after serving as an alternate in 2021-22 when Buffalo stripped Jack Eichel of the captaincy earlier than lastly buying and selling him to Vegas.
The place different gamers wished out of Buffalo due to the Sabres’ dropping observe document, Okposo expressed a want to remain due to the promise he noticed in a workforce that options younger and up-and-coming stars equivalent to Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power.
Okposo had 11 objectives and 28 factors in 75 video games whereas enjoying extra of a checking line roll. His finest season in Buffalo got here two years in the past, when he had 21 objectives — his fourth 20-goal season — and 45 factors.
From Minnesota, Okposo spent his first 9 seasons with the New York Islanders earlier than signing with Buffalo in free company in July 2016. On the time, Okposo seen the Eichel-led Sabres as turning into contenders.
Although the workforce by no means performed to its potential, Okposo finally adopted Buffalo as a everlasting house.
He is continued enjoying regardless of having his profession practically sidetracked by a number of accidents scares.
Okposo endured a rash of concussions, experiencing 4 over a three-year stretch from 2017-19. It is a span that included such extreme concussion-related signs that he spent practically every week in Buffalo Common Hospital’s Neuro Surgical ICU after he started dropping pounds and skilled problem sleeping following a routine hit in observe.