"I was open to everything," the defenseman said Friday, when he took part in his first practice of training camp. "We had long, good conversations about all those options. But we ended up having this deal. I'm very happy with it. I'm looking forward to the next three years. We have something good in here."
The 21-year-old was a restricted free agent. Dahlin scored 23 points (five goals, 18 assists) in 56 games for the Sabres last season, his third in the NHL. He averaged an NHL career-high 21:36 of ice time per game.
Selected by Buffalo with the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, Dahlin has scored 107 points (18 goals, 89 assists) in 197 regular-season games. He scored 44 points (nine goals, 35 assists) in 82 games in 2018-19 and finished third in voting for the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year.
"[The] first three years I was kind of here to see and learn," Dahlin said. "And now that's done. I need to take more responsibility in the locker room and on the ice too. I want to be more [of] a leader. I want to be a guy you can trust every single second I'm at the rink. So, yeah, I'm not a young talent anymore. I've got to step up and show what I can do."
The Sabres (15-34-7) finished last in the NHL in 2020-21 and have not qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs the past 10 seasons. They held their first practice of training camp Thursday and begin the regular season at home against the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 14.
Dahlin said he and young teammates such as 22-year-old defenseman Henri Jokiharju and forwards Dylan Cozens, 20, and Casey Mittelstadt, 22, are eager to help Buffalo have success.
"… The young group, we hang out all the time off the ice," he said. "We are a tight group, and we know what we expect from each other. And everyone's talking about the same stuff. Like, we really want to turn this around and we really want to be a winning team."
NHL.com independent correspondent Heather Engel contributed to this report
