{"id":547521,"date":"2026-04-08T14:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547521\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T14:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:42:11","slug":"nhl-analyst-calls-sabres-star-the-unsung-hero-behind-buffalos-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547521\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL analyst calls Sabres star the ‘unsung hero behind Buffalo’s rise’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last summer, there was legitimate frustration within the Buffalo Sabres fanbase that the front office didn’t consider buying out<\/a> Mattias Samuelsson from the remainder of his seven-year contract.\n<\/p>\n

It’s a good thing they didn’t because his $4.3 million salary now looks like one of the NHL’s biggest bargains<\/a>, and the 26-year-old defenseman remains under contract through 2029-30.\n<\/p>\n

Samuelsson has recorded 41 points (13 goals and 28 assists) in 75 appearances, absolutely obliterating his previous career high of 14 points, and his plus-36 rating is tied for the 10th-best mark in the league.\n<\/p>\n

Harman Dayal<\/a> of The Athletic rightfully described it as a “shocking turnaround.”\n<\/p>\n

“Samuelsson has completely turned his game around and reached a level we’ve never seen before,” Dayal wrote. “Playing next to Dahlin, Samuelsson is tied for 12th among all defensemen in five-on-five points in addition to making an excellent defensive impact. He’s the unsung hero behind Buffalo’s rise this season.”\n<\/p>\n

Now the question is whether the 6-foot-4 defender can maintain his elite level of performance as the Sabres skate in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2011.\n<\/p>\n

Mattias Samuelsson may hold the key to a Buffalo Sabres deep postseason run<\/p>\n

The Sabres’ third defensive pair has been a problem for a vast majority of the campaign. Michael Kesselring and Conor Timmins both missed time with injuries and, even though they’re available now, they’ve seemingly fallen out of favor<\/a> with head coach Lindy Ruff.\n<\/p>\n

Buffalo acquired Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn from the Winnipeg Jets ahead of the 2026 NHL trade deadline last month in search of a physical presence<\/a>. Stanley has received ample playing time and, while he’s been decent defensively, his lack of foot speed has been a clear problem at times.\n<\/p>\n

Then there’s Zach Metsa, who went on a PDO run almost unprecedented in the league’s analytics era<\/a>, but he’s cooled off since coming back from a brief stint with the AHL’s Rochester Americans.\n<\/p>\n

The lack of dependable options on the bottom pair means Ruff is likely going to play the top-four group of Samuelsson, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Bowen Byram monster minutes in the playoffs.\n<\/p>\n

For Samuelsson, who’s thrived on the No. 1 pair alongside Norris Trophy candidate<\/a> Dahlin, a sizable portion of his breakout can be contributed to staying healthy.\n<\/p>\n

The Western Michigan University product had never played more than 62 games in a season and averaged 50 appearances over the previous four years.\n<\/p>\n

How will his body hold up to the rugged, battle-for-every-inch nature of the playoffs? Can he handle the rigors for another 20-plus games, which would be required if the Sabres want to make a serious push toward a Stanley Cup title?\n<\/p>\n

Buffalo sure hopes so because it simply doesn’t have a viable replacement option if any member of the defensive top four gets hurt at any point during the postseason.\n<\/p>\n

Dahlin is the cornerstone but Samuelsson is right there with him in terms of importance, especially given the strong two-way results that were completely unexpected.\n<\/p>\n

The Sabres’ playoff upside is far higher if he can maintain that level for another few months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last summer, there was legitimate frustration within the Buffalo Sabres fanbase that the front office didn’t consider buying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5100],"tags":[1107,229,5133,5,4,1108],"class_list":{"0":"post-547521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-sabres","8":"tag-buffalo","9":"tag-buffalo-sabres","10":"tag-buffalosabres","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sabres"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116369617617366614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}