AP

‘Though the Sabres avoided the players potentially being awarded more expensive contracts, the deals push Buffalo about $1 million over the $81.5 million salary cap. That puts the team in a position to have to create additional space before the season opens in early October.’

‘Rodrigues was a restricted free agent who set career highs with nine goals, 29 points and 74 games played in his fourth season with Buffalo. Overall, Rodrigues has 21 goals and 62 points in 154 NHL career games.’

‘Larsson made his NHL debut with Minnesota in 2013, but was traded to Buffalo after just one game with the Wild.’

‘“Buffalo, that kind of stuff, that’s in the past. Obviously thought maybe I would be in the NHL sooner than I have been, but I’m just really excited, looking forward to being part of the Blackhawks organization,” Nylander said. “Really good with development players, so they actually know what they’re doing.”’

‘Buffalo announced Johansson’s deal on Saturday. The average annual value is $4.5 million.’

‘“But as much as we want players to be part of it, and help us with our immediate needs, there has to be a balance, and there has to be a situation where we’re not making signings that are going to be detrimental to us in the future.”’

‘The Sabres provided the update Tuesday, a day after Cozens was scheduled to visit a specialist. Cozens will have the procedure Wednesday.’

‘“I think there’s always a demand for those,” he said, referring to Miller and Ristolainen both being right-shot defenseman and playing under reasonably priced contracts. “I’m never going to be in a situation where I complain about too much depth.”’

‘”At the time you always think you’re doing what you think is right with the information you have. But now as we sit here, all those steps, whether they were mistakes or not, is kind of where we are now,” she added. “You can’t think they’re all bad because we’ve got Jack (Eichel), we’ve got (Jeff) Skinner, we’ve got (Rasmus) Dahlin. … So all that wouldn’t have happened if other things didn’t happen. Sometimes, they were mistakes, but they’re not.”‘

‘The 26-year-old Miller has four seasons of NHL experience and had three goals and 26 assists for 29 points in 65 games last season. That was a drop-off from the previous year when he led Golden Knights defensemen with a career-best 41 points (10 goals, 31 assists).’