Just under a week before the two sides were scheduled for saiary arbitration, the Buffalo Sabres and defenseman Conor Timmins agreed on a two-year, $4.4 million contract extension. The 26-year-old blueliner was acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins in a deal for veteran Connor Clifton and the Sabres 2025 second-round pick on day 2 of the NHL Draft last month.
The St. Catharines, ON native coming off a 15-point season with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Penguins (3 goals, 12 assists) in 68 games was expected to get a slight raise from the $1.1 million salary he made last season, but with the cap going up and the Sabres buying an unrestricted free agent year, Timmins salary doubled to an AAV of $2.2 million. That amount is still $1.1 million less than Clifton’s 2025-26 salary.
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Timmins ranks fifth in salary on the Sabres blueline, behind team captain Rasmus Dahlin ($11 million), Owen Power ($8.35 million), Bowen Byram ($6.25 million), and Mattias Samuelsson ($4.285 million), and ahead of the recently acquired Michael Kesselring ($1.4 million), Jacob Bryson and Zac Jones ($900,000). Although he will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer, Sabres GM Kevyn Adams may try to be proactive and try to get Kesselring extended, after he was the main piece in the trade that sent JJ Peterka to Utah.
The signing of Timmins leaves the Sabres with one remaining restricted free agent in goalie Devon Levi. The 23-year-old is not arbitration-eligible and cannot be signed to an offer sheet, but after spending the last one-and-a-half seasons in AHL Rochester and the signing of veteran Alex Lyon to a two-year contract earlier this month, there may begin to be some concern of how motivated Levi is to sign a new deal with Buffalo.
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