Former Sabres captain Okposo announces retirement

Former Buffalo Sabres captain Kyle Okposo announced his retirement on Thursday, concluding a career that spanned 17 seasons and 1,051 regular-season games.

Okposo played 516 of those games with the Sabres after signing a seven-year deal to join the organization in the summer of 2016. He was traded this past March to the Florida Panthers, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in June.

Read his statement in the post below.

Okposo was drafted seventh overall in 2011 by the New York Islanders, with whom he played nine seasons prior to joining the Sabres in free agency. He was selected to the All-Star Game during his first season with Buffalo, when he scored 19 goals and 45 points in 65 games.

That first season with the Sabres also brought adversity in the form of a severe late-season concussion, which required hospitalization in the neurosurgical ICU at Buffalo General Hospital. Okposo reflected on the experience at the end of the 2022-23 season, when he concluded his original seven-year contract with the Sabres.

"If you were to tell me that I'd play out the remainder of my deal and be where I am today, I probably would've said you're lying," he said.

Okposo returned the following season and continued to persevere in the ensuing years, during which he dealt with additional concussions and injuries, all the while remaining an active voice in the locker room even as teammates changed around him.

His role transformed during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, which saw many longtime Sabres depart in favor of a young crop of players – many of whom comprise the core of the team’s current roster. Okposo guided the group as an alternate captain in 2021-22, then as the team’s official captain the past two seasons. He was a conduit between the organization and community, even making Buffalo his full-time home for the back half of his tenure. In the dressing room, he was both a shoulder to lean on and a commanding voice.

"It's impossible to overstate what Kyle has meant to this group - he is patient, he is a lifelong learner, he is levelheaded, and most of all, he is proud to be a Buffalo Sabre," general manager Kevyn Adams said when he appointed Okposo captain in 2022.

"When times get difficult, Kyle knows when to speak up, and when he does, the team takes it to heart. Kyle and his family have made Buffalo their home and want to see our organization succeed, both on and off the ice. I am proud that Kyle will represent our organization with class and dignity."

Okposo returned to Buffalo last season on a one-year contract and was traded to the Panthers at the deadline, a decision made by the Sabres to give the veteran one final chance at a championship. He played 17 playoff games for Florida, including six in the Stanley Cup Final.

Following the championship, Okposo penned an open letter to Western New York that was published in the Buffalo News.

“I never thought I could truly integrate myself and my family into another place,” St. Paul, Minnesota native wrote. “I was wrong about that. You all care so much about the Sabres and Bills. It’s amazing to be a part of something that people are so passionate about. It made losing more difficult, but that’s OK. When the group who is here turns it around, it’s going to make the feeling of success run so much deeper.

“I can’t promise you anything other than the fact I did my best to teach the men in that locker room. To care, to hurt, to love, to grind, to work. You are in good hands with the young core, and they will deliver.”