- The Sabres signed Zach Metsa to a one-year extension with a $900,000 cap hit
- The undrafted defenseman wore the C at Quinnipiac and in Rochester before his first NHL call-up
- Read below for how the deal is structured and what Metsa did in his first NHL season
Nobody drafted Zach Metsa. Buffalo just handed him a one-way NHL contract anyway.
The Sabres announced Friday afternoon that they signed the 27-year-old defenseman to a one-year extension carrying a $900,000 cap hit.
That number is not the interesting part. Metsa still has a season left on his current two-way deal at $850,000, so the raise does not arrive until 2027-28, and the new contract is one-way. Daily Faceoff laid out the terms. He collects the same money whether he dresses in Buffalo or gets sent down to Rochester.
Metsa grew up in Delafield, Wisconsin, bounced through four USHL teams and a stop in the BCHL, then spent five years at Quinnipiac. As a fifth-year captain in 2023, he led the Bobcats to the only national championship in program history.
Buffalo signed him out of school that spring as an undrafted free agent. He reached Rochester in time for the Calder Cup playoffs, spent the next two seasons in the AHL, and jumped from 24 points to 46 in year two.
Rochester made him the 65th captain in franchise history last October:
Eleven days later he was in Montreal for his NHL debut. Metsa split the rest of the year between the two levels and finished with 43 NHL games, two goals, six points and a plus-16 rating while averaging 10:58 a night at 5-foot-9.
January 6 was the night that stuck. He scored his first NHL goal early in the third period against Vancouver to make it 4-0, and after the Canucks answered with three straight, it held up as the winner in a 5-3 Buffalo victory.
Take a look at what he made of it afterward:
The playoffs gave him two more games and one more milestone. Metsa scored in the 8-3 Game 6 rout of the Canadiens that pushed the second round to a seventh game.
He is under contract through 2027-28 now, and Pro Hockey Rumors expects him to open the season on Buffalo’s roster instead of in Rochester.
