Daily Faceoff Live: Agent, NHL executive say Mattias Samuelsson contract is among the worst they’ve ever seen
The Buffalo Sabres made a surprising decision on Wednesday to ink defenseman Mattias Samuelsson to a seven-year, $30 million contract despite the fact he’s played only 54 games in the NHL. Frank Seravalli and Steven Ellis dug into the deal on Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live…
Frank Seravalli: Let’s talk about some news about the Buffalo Sabres. Their general manager, Kevyn Adams, got a contract extension, but that’s not the juiciest contract handed out by the Sabres on this Wednesday.
It’s Mattias Samuelsson. He signed a seven-year, $30 million contract extension with the Sabres. You look at his career, he hasn’t yet been a full-time NHL player. 54 games played, he signs for $30 million before his first NHL goal is scored.
Steven Ellis: It was surprising. For a guy that spent one-third of the year last year in the AHL, that’s a weird one. But this is a guy they clearly value for their core, Sabres fans really love him, he’s an underrated defensive defenseman.
He hasn’t scored a goal yet, but he actually showed some offensive upside when he was playing in the NCAA. Maybe he’s a late-bloomer in that case but he’s a defensive defenseman, and when you have Owen Power and Rasmus Dahlin, that’s a good fit to have there.
Seravalli: You can certainly see the pieces start to come together with Power and Dahlin and if you’ve got what you believe is a shutdown guy, by all means, lock him up.
The news goes out about the contract extension for Samuelsson, and I got a call from an agent right away that said “This is the worst contract I’ve ever seen a player sign. He could have waited, done a two-year bridge deal, see what his career looks like, and then cash in when the salary cap goes up.”
And then I got a call from a front office executive who said… “This is one of the worst contracts I’ve seen a team give out. What are they doing? Even if they think that Mattias Samuelsson can be a shutdown defenseman in this league, why doesn’t he go out and prove it? How much more is it going to cost them at that point?”
He pointed at the eight-year, $41.6 million deal Erik Cernak signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning. We know what Cernak is, we don’t know what Samuelsson is in the NHL yet.
So I said, tell me what you’ve seen from Mattias Samuelsson, and he said, here’s what he looks like in our scouting rankings…
He gave Samuelsson a 4.5/10 in intelligence, three in skillset, one in offensive instincts, 5.5 in defensive instincts, 5.5 in competitive toughness, and an overall score of 4.4 out of 10. He said ‘I’m not entirely certain yet, given he played on a bad team, that Mattias Samuelsson is even a full-time NHL player yet.’
You can watch the full episode here…
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