Sabres sign Girgensons to 1-year contract

The Buffalo Sabres have re-signed forward Zemgus Girgensons to a one-year contract worth $2.5 million, the team announced Tuesday.

Girgensons, 29, is the longest-tenured Sabres player with 625 games played spanning 10 seasons, the past two of which he has spent as an alternate captain. He expressed his desire to remain with the organization during his end-of-season press conference in March.

"Definitely with what the team has here and the steps it's taken, I definitely would like to be a part of this," he said.

Girgensons tallied 18 points (10+8) in 80 games last season while serving as a physical, defensively reliable presence on the wing opposite Sabres captain Kyle Okposo. He finished first among Sabres forwards in shorthanded ice time (116:42).

Girgensons' identity was perhaps best encapsulated late in an emotional 6-3 win on December 29, the Sabres' first game in Buffalo following the blizzard that paralyzed Western New York during the holidays. Girgensons outraced Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin to negate an icing, won possession in the corner, and found Okposo to set up a much-needed empty-net goal.

"Nobody does a better job of [playing hard] than twenty-eight," Okposo said the following day. "When he plays every night, you know exactly what you're getting."

Together with Okposo, Girgensons has been credited with helping to create an open, communicative culture in the Sabres' dressing room as veterans on the NHL's youngest roster. The two were named alternate captains together prior to the 2021-22 season, after which Okposo was promoted to captain.

Okposo signed a new one-year contract with the Sabres on May 25.

"Zemgus is, I would call it, a quiet leader, goes about his business but cares about his teammates and teammates care about him," Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams said in April. "He's literally the same every game. There's very little drop off [or] ups and downs with him."