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Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Sabres extend qualifying offer to Krebs, Zellweger
- Story byNiagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
- Sabres extend qualifying offer to Krebs, Zellweger
The Buffalo Sabres on Monday extended qualifying offers to restricted free agents Peyton Krebs and defenseman Olen Zellweger.
Four players – defenseman Zac Jones, Nikita Novikov and Isaac Belliveau and winger Olivier Nadeau – did not receive a qualifying offer, making them free agents.
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Krebs, 25, has established himself as one of the Sabres' most versatile forwards. He's eligible for arbitration.
The Sabres acquired Zellweger, 22, on Friday in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks. The defenseman is viewed as a replacement for Bowen Byram, who was traded last Tuesday to the Chicago Blackhawks.
Jones, 25, enjoyed a huge season with the Rochester Americans, scoring 10 goals and a team-high 62 points in 60 games. That prolific output earned him the Eddie Shore Award as the AHL's most outstanding defenseman in 2025-26.
He earned some recalls to Buffalo but never played.
The Sabres last season loaned Novikov, 22, from Rochester to the Ontario Reign, the Los Angeles' Kings' AHL affiliate. They drafted him in the sixth round in 2021, 188th overall.
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Nadeau, 23, spent all last season in Rochester, scoring 13 goals and 26 points in 56 games. The Sabres drafted him in the fourth round in 2021, 97th overall.
The Sabres acquired Belliveau, 23, last year in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins that brought defenseman Conor Timmins to Buffalo.
The Sabres on Monday signed winger Beck Malenstyn, who led the team in hits in each of the last two seasons, to a six-year, $17.5 million contract.
Malenstyn, 28, could've become an unrestricted free agent Wednesday.
The contract has a $2.917 million salary cap hit. He will receive a $2.5 million signing bonus in each of the first two seasons, according to Puckpedia.com .
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The 6-foot-3, 209-pound Malenstyn registered 282 hits in 81 games last season, the most by a Sabres player since the NHL began tracking the stat in 2005-06. That total ranked fifth in the league.
He also recorded 75 blocked shots, the team's second-highest total. He became the first Sabres player to register at least 250 hits and 70 blocked shots in a season since the NHL began tracking the stats in 2005-06.
Malenstyn scored a career-high seven goals, 14 points and 31 penalty minutes last season.
He has compiled 19 goals, 48 points and 103 penalty minutes in 262 career NHL games.
The Sabres acquired him from the Washington Capitals in 2024 in exchange for a second-round pick.
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•••
Over the 2021 and 2022 drafts, the Sabres took some big swings by drafting six Russians, including four in the second and third rounds.
Just one, defenseman Vsevolod Komarov, a strong prospect with the Rochester Americans, finished last season under contract in the organization.
So far, zero have played an NHL game. That could, however, change next year.
Assistant general manager Jerry Forton, who's in charge of amateur scouting, said winger Prokhor Poltapov, the highest drafted of the group and perhaps the most talented, could join the Sabres next year.
The Sabres selected Poltapov in the second round in 2021, 33rd overall. His contract with CSKA Moscow, a Kontinental Hockey League team, runs through 2026-27, according to multiple reports. He hasn't signed a contract with Buffalo.
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Poltapov, 23, has spent the last four seasons and part of another in the KHL, scoring 43 goals and 103 points in 266 games.
Forton said Poltapov doesn't get "talked about too much, at least outside Buffalo."
"We consider him almost a plug-and-play prospect the day he's ready to come over, which I think should be next year," Forton said Saturday at One Bills Drive in Orchard Park following the NHL Draft. "(He) had middle-six qualities that I think will be pretty unique for our organization.
"When we talk sometimes about our pieces that have gone out of this organization, or even some of the pieces that have come in in the last year or two, you don't hear his name as much. I think he's very much a guy that can come in and make an impact the day he gets over here."
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What happened to the other Russians the Sabres drafted?
• Novikov, who wasn't given a qualifying offer from the Sabres, played 183 games for the Amerks.
• They traded winger Viktor Neuchev (74th overall in 2022) to the Carolina Hurricanes last season, and he finished with the Chicago Wolves, their AHL affiliate.
Neuchev played 130 games for the Amerks.
• The Sabres did not give winger Aleksandr Kisakov (53rd overall in 2021) a qualifying offer last year. He spent last season in the KHL and the VHL, a Russian minor league.
Kisakov played 93 games for the Amerks.
– The Sabres haven't signed forward Stiven Sardarian (88th overall in 2021). He spent last season at Western Michigan University.
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They hold his rights until Aug. 15.
•••
Most years, Forton explained, NHL Central Scouting asks teams picking low not to "harass" top many prospects expected to be chosen at the too of the draft.
Why waste their time, right?
So understandably, the Sabres, who owned the 27th selection earlier this month during the NHL Scouting Combine, did not talk to defenseman Daxon Rudolph, the prospect they took fourth overall Friday, in the weeks before the draft.
The Sabres, however, knew all about the Rudolph, who spent the last two seasons starring for the Western Hockey League's Prince Albert Raiders.
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When they acquired the fourth pick Tuesday in a trade with the Blackhawks, the Sabres were ready.
"We've spent a lot of time with him for the past couple years," Forton said.
Forton said two Buffalo scouts, Graham Beamish and Lukas Sutter scour the Canadian Hockey League and Hockey Canada camps.
"They know him inside and out as a player and a person," he said.
Forton said he and assistant director of amateur scouting Jason Nightingale and scout Kevin Devine each saw Rudolph play at least 10 times.
"We think very highly of him as a person," he said. "The hockey sense combo with the compete and character made an impression on us."
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The Sabres chatted with Rudolph on Friday morning.
•••
The Sabres had the first of three on-ice sessions of development camp Monday at LECOM Harborcenter. They close camp with a scrimmage at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
