Östlund 8 year extension

[SabreFinn]

A favorite player signed to a 8 year contract with my favourite team, what a great day! A bit surprised though. Still, even if he wouldn't become more than a third liner, with a rising cap that's a solid deal. 

[Fansince70]

1 hour ago, _Q_ said:

What a day, Helle thread finally locked and we get some hockey fun to talk about!

Love the deal.

There was a Helle thread? 

[Fansince70]

55 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Better be right (full stop).  I would not say he is frail,  but his body of work in the NHL is scant and I am surprised the Sabres wanted to lock him for 8 years.  They must consider him a sure thing to become a productive two way player.  

He is a smart player and it shows when he plays.  Now he is a 6.6M$ guy and is still pretty much a rookie.  

The Sabres are banking on him become a star player for them.  Noah will be 30 when this contract ends.  If he is a top 6 star for Buffalo then he undershot his worth.  

There is now one less asset to discuss in the possible Hellebyuck  trade.  

Who is this Hellebyuck you speak of? 

[The Jokeman]

Crazy for an unproven guy. Not sure I like it....now. 

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, SabresBaltimore said:

puckpedia has the breakdown. More Bonus money. I guess winning has changed Terry's mind on those a bit.

 

That means Östlund is signed for 9yrs at this point. That is a lot of time, I hope he really trained hard all offseason because strength and ability to sustain the physical game of the NHL is my only worry about him. 

[K-9]

1 hour ago, pastajoe said:

Or it could have been a request from Winnipeg as part of the deal. 🤔

Hadn’t thought of that, but it might make sense for Winnipeg on some level. I have no idea on what level that would be. 
 

If Jarmo already nixed any idea of Östlund being a part of any previous potential deal, then it doesn’t matter. 

[LGR4GM]

Noah Östlund: 1.9p/60

Zach Benson: 2.5p/60

Something to think about is both of these players were given less than 16min of TOI last year. Benson was given 15:53TOI a game and Östlund was given 13:38. I only bring it up because I would expect both to hover in the 16-18min mark this upcoming season. If they manage to maintain their scoring rates or improve them, Buffalo would be in good shape. I do worry about Östlund but his playmaking and processing seemed to jump up in the 2nd half of the year. We shall see. 

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, That Aud Smell said:

"OSTY IN FIRST!"

i wish i could find that locker room clip from last season.

lol yeah that too.

I think it’s in the “wagon goes west” embedded video for last spring.

17 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

That means Östlund is signed for 9yrs at this point. That is a lot of time, I hope he really trained hard all offseason because strength and ability to sustain the physical game of the NHL is my only worry about him. 

Just saw the quick Sabres video of Östlund announcing his deal.

Kid looks so much thicker than he was 4 years ago when we drafted him.

 

[Rasmus_]

Makes sense and also gets you ahead of impact years.  Nothing wrong with getting this done early and getting ahead of the potential RFA crunch.  Great contract for the Sabres, as long as he continues to develop offensively. He'll have more opportunities heading into next season. Just stay healthy Noah.

[PromoTheRobot]

2 hours ago, SabresBaltimore said:

Here is the tweet version, which at least embeds here.

Seems a bit early, but I think the 8 year contracts are going away soon? I think the contract will age well. I like his game, but I do worry about his health issues so far. Small sample size on both things though.

Like tomorrow.

[inkman]

1 minute ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Like tomorrow.

Totally 

[JustOneParade]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Wish he was physically stronger.

Love everything else about this kid and the way he plays.

He'll get there. He's still only 22.

[That Aud Smell]

30 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I think it’s in the “wagon goes west” embedded video for last spring.

Thanks so much. I found it.

Here's Lindy saying it:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWA3rfFFM3O/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&stkn=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

And here's a Tweet with the incident itself (complete with a Rayzer "hah!").

 

 

Now, Lindy there says "Osty first main in again!"

Again.

Was the first time in that nutso Lightning game? Did someone take a liberty with Tage and Östlund just jumped on the guy?

[That Aud Smell]

Well there's this one, but not the one I am thinking of.

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DVUr3XGjKEh/

(And fair play to Point for not ending Östlund there.)

[That Aud Smell]

There was another play where someone took a liberty with Tage, I'm pretty sure, and Östlund just flew in and just jumped on the guy's back (the best he could do, really).

EDIT: I think I found both from Östlund. The other one I am thinking of involved Benson, I believe.

Edited September 14 by That Aud Smell

[That Aud Smell]

Here's the one from Benson -->

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVumtC0DGgE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&stkn=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

[JP51]

3 hours ago, SabresBaltimore said:

Here is the tweet version, which at least embeds here.

Seems a bit early, but I think the 8 year contracts are going away soon? I think the contract will age well. I like his game, but I do worry about his health issues so far. Small sample size on both things though.

Yeah they made a bet that this contract ages really well...  some you win some you lose lets hope we win. 

[JohnC]

2 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Better be right (full stop).  I would not say he is frail,  but his body of work in the NHL is scant and I am surprised the Sabres wanted to lock him for 8 years.  They must consider him a sure thing to become a productive two way player.  

He is a smart player and it shows when he plays.  Now he is a 6.6M$ guy and is still pretty much a rookie.  

The Sabres are banking on him become a star player for them.  Noah will be 30 when this contract ends.  If he is a top 6 star for Buffalo then he undershot his worth.  

There is now one less asset to discuss in the possible Hellebyuck  trade.  

I don't believe that the organization is counting on him being a star player (your description). If he becomes a solid 2C/3C player, then his contract falls within the boundaries of being a favorable contract for the organization. 

When you watch him play, he usually doesn't stand out. That's because he's a solid player with a mature game. Overall, I consider this to be a smart deal now that will look better in the not-too-distant future. And if he becomes the player that many of us expect him to be, his reasonable AAV contract will make him an easy asset to move if required. 

@dudacek has made this point before so I want to credit it for his keen observation: The Sabres are assembling enough talent to the point where there isn't much distinction among the top three lines, especially between the second and third line. There are so many options on how to construct the lines that make sense. It's taken a long time for this forlorn franchise to have gotten to this point, but we are now at a stage where there is plenty of depth to deal with injuries and lineup shakeups. 

[pi2000]

I like the player.

$6.6m will seem like peanuts in a another year or two.

[Pimlach]

16 minutes ago, JohnC said:

I don't believe that the organization is counting on him being a star player (your description). If he becomes a solid 2C/3C player, then his contract falls within the boundaries of being a favorable contract for the organization. 

When you watch him play, he usually doesn't stand out. That's because he's a solid player with a mature game. Overall, I consider this to be a smart deal now that will look better in the not-too-distant future. And if he becomes the player that many of us expect him to be, his reasonable AAV contract will make him an easy asset to move if required. 

@dudacek has made this point before so I want to credit it for his keen observation: The Sabres are assembling enough talent to the point where there isn't much distinction among the top three lines, especially between the second and third line. There are so many options on how to construct the lines that make sense. It's taken a long time for this forlorn franchise to have gotten to this point, but we are now at a stage where there is plenty of depth to deal with injuries and lineup shakeups. 

Fair, they are banking on a solid 2 way top 9 at player.  IF he doesn't produce for some reason, then they are holding the bag on the contract.  From what we have seen but the risks are pretty low, but not zero.  

[PromoTheRobot]

 

[Nacho Libre]

It’s not that there isn’t a reasonable amount of risk, and that bad contracts can’t severely roadblock winning, it’s that you aren’t going to win without GOOD contracts, anyways. So if you don’t try for them you are already defeated. Östlund seems as good an option to bet on as any current, personally I love his pass-first style 

I’m honestly a little suprised Noah signed it: but I’ll always admire the bird-in-hand approach from a young mind

[JohnC]

5 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Fair, they are banking on a solid 2 way top 9 at player.  IF he doesn't produce for some reason, then they are holding the bag on the contract.  From what we have seen but the risks are pretty low, but not zero.  

Setting aside our playoff season and run, last season was important from a young player evaluation standpoint. The organization was able see players such as Östlund and Helenius play. It was evident that stepping up to the NHL from the AHL they were not out of place in the higher league. With prospects, you never really know until they are exposed to playing against NHL men. That's why I'm excited about players such as Kulich, Helenius and Östlund. The glimmer that we got of them showed promise for this trio. That's why I have become so obstinate in not including any of them in a trade deal for Helly. 

[Weave]

4 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

I'm torn between why would the Sabres do it and why would Noah do it?

I totally get this.  The line for “deserving” deals like this seen to be shifting considerably away from done this over to might do this.

And how much of Osty signing this is his agent not willing to bet he has more in him, or Osty not willing to make the bet?

 

As long as the kid doesn’t bust, it’ll probably be a readily moveable deal if needed.

Edited September 14 by Weave

[PerreaultForever]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

That means Östlund is signed for 9yrs at this point. That is a lot of time, I hope he really trained hard all offseason because strength and ability to sustain the physical game of the NHL is my only worry about him. 

I agree with that. It's a leap of faith I wouldn't have taken yet but it might work out. This is the money the league is tossing around now as we've seen with other contracts so I guess that's the going rate but I just think in this case it's a little premature. 

(Remember when KA didn't want to pay Peterka and we all popped our eyes wide open over the Utah overpay? Things have changed fast)