BUFFALO | A good working atmosphere, colleagues we value. This often stimulates an employee’s performance and their desire to invest long-term in the company that employs them.
For the Sabers, those conditions appear to have been met, as Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power signed contract extensions in recent weeks that will tie them to the Sabers for nearly the next decade.
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“I really wanted to sign a long-term contract because I believe in what we’re doing here,” Dahlin said at the end of the Sabres’ morning skate. It’s such a good group. It will be fun to be able to build something with them. I believe we can do something great.”
In fact, they aren’t the only skaters from the Sabres’ young core who have reached a long-term agreement with the team. They joined Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens and Mattias Samuelsson, who had done the same in recent months.
“Over the last two years, the culture within this organization has changed,” said Power, who is entering his second full season with the team that selected him first overall in 2021.
“There are good people in this locker room,” Power continued. The boys enjoy coming to the arena. From what I’ve heard before, it’s completely different. And it’s the best.”
The atmosphere was bad
Kyle Oksposo has been a member of this team since 2016 and can attest to the change in mood in the Sabers locker room.
“If you’re not a good person, you’re no longer welcome here. As the leader of this team, I want to ensure that this is a primary value,” said the Sabers captain.
“How you treat people is so important. Nobody is above anyone. We don’t have to look down on people because we have status and play hockey,” he added in the same breath.
This is not the first time that the negative atmosphere that already exists around the Sabers has increased. Ryan O’Reilly has previously claimed that he often lost interest in playing hockey during his three seasons in Buffalo.
Such a comment obviously brings bad press to an organization. This contributes to the team not making the playoffs since 2011.
“Buffalo has probably been blacklisted by several players in the last 10 years,” Okposo said. It’s slowly changing. It shows that we are building something good. Hopefully it will be a fun place to play for a long time to come.”
“It’s going to be a big season”
The 35-year-old Okposo only has one season left on his current contract. It’s hard to say whether he’ll still be wearing this jersey when the team really gets going.
It almost took a step in that direction last winter when it missed the playoffs by just one point.
“We were so close,” Power recalled. If you look at the situation, you can see that the details matter. Details in every game that would have allowed us to get a few extra points. It showed us how important they are.”
“We learned a lot last year. Having missed the playoffs by just one point, we now know what it takes to compete. “It’s going to be a big season for us,” Dahlin said.
Much to the Canadian’s misfortune, he will see another rival gain ground in the Atlantic Division.