Buffalo Sabres make a big gamble with contract for forward Tage Thompson

The Buffalo Sabres extended a key player in their organization yesterday when they announced they had extended Tage Thompson to a seven-year extension worth 50 million dollars. Thompson was the breakout player of the year last season for the Sabres, and now he has been rewarded with a new contract.

The Buffalo Sabres are betting on Tage Thompson’s future success with this big contract.

Tage Thompson was traded to the Buffalo Sabres in the 2018 offseason in the big trade that sent Ryan O’Reilly to the St. Louis Blues. In exchange, the Sabres received Thompson, Patrik Berglund,
Vladimír Sobotka, a first-round draft pick and a second-round pick. The Sabres have had Thompson for 182 games so far in his career, but this past season saw Thompson take a big jump in his development with the Sabres.

The 24-year-old forward played in a career-high 78 games this past season and during that time he put up 68 points including 38 goals. His two linemates were primarily Jeff Skinner and Alex Tuch and the three of them played some great hockey together.

Tage Thompson’s career stats:

This past season was a big season for Thompson. He put up a lot of points and played in bigger situations than he ever had before up to that point. He was the key center down the middle on this Sabres team, and while the team is not ready to contend, they made it official making him a big piece of the puzzle for the future team.

Thompson will have an annual cap hit of $7.142 million a season when the 2023-24 season rolls around. At the end of this upcoming season, we all will be looking back and saying how good of a decision this was, or how bad it was.

The Sabres are betting on Thompson taking a step forward and the salary cap going up. Seven million a season is a lot to commit to a player, it is easy if they are consistently putting up 70 points a season, but Thompson has only done that once in his entire career. This is where it is a gamble.

Tage Thompson could come back this upcoming season and pick up right where he left off. He could be a real force for this team with his size and skill, and he could be someone Sabres fans will enjoy watching for the next eight seasons, or things could be underwhelming.

This is a big gamble for the Sabres and Thompson. Buffalo is betting on Thompson elevating his play, and he is betting on the Sabres improving sooner rather than later. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.