The Buffalo Sabres Make What May Be a Surprising Move

The Buffalo Sabres are preparing for next week's 2023 NHL Draft in Nashville. For the first time the first round of the draft will be held on a Wednesday. Rounds 2-7 will held on Thursday.

Buffalo has cap room to play with once again and if you ask most fans, they will say that the Sabres need two things the most: a top four defenceman and a goaltender to pair with Devon Levi.

However, the Sabres will have to make decisions about a couple of their own players in the next week or two, but one of those players will in fact be returning to Buffalo.

The Sabres have announced they have re-signed the longest tenured player on the roster, Zemgus Girgensons.

It's a one-year contract, worth $2.5 million.

Girgensons was drafted by the Sabres in the first round by Buffalo in the 2012 NHL Draft. The 29-year-old made the roster right away and has been a mainstay on the third and fourth lines for the Sabres since.

He's never going to light up the scoreboard but he brings leadership, toughness and kills penalties.

However, this re-signing is a bit of a surprise. Girgensons is left over from the Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff era. He's been through four different general managers and despite his presence in the locker room, many fans may have felt it was time for him to move on to a new chapter in is career.

We will have to see if this means general manager Kevyn Adams decides to not keep veteran Tyson Jost, because both play a similar role.

The Sabres also re-signed forward Lukas Rousek.

Free agency begins in under two weeks.