{"id":492570,"date":"2026-06-24T22:23:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T02:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=492570"},"modified":"2026-06-24T22:23:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T02:23:44","slug":"zach-benson-signs-rfa-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/06\/24\/zach-benson-signs-rfa-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Zach Benson Signs Hefty Extension With Buffalo Sabres"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/06\/24\/alex-tuch-signs-new-deal\/\" target=\"_self\">Buffalo Sabres<\/a> have been <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/06\/23\/bowen-byram-trade\/\" target=\"_self\">very busy this offseason<\/a>, that is for sure. Coming off a strong season with the Sabres, <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/bensoza01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-06-24_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zach Benson<\/a> signs a seven-year extension worth an average of $7.5 million per season. The pending restricted free agent had a bit of a breakout season, especially coming up big in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, where he scored nine points in 13 games. The 13th-overall <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/06\/24\/2026-nhl-draft-part-3\/\" target=\"_self\">draft pick<\/a> in 2023 is headed for a massive payday. Let us discuss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBdg4nYRKu\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3200px; aspect-ratio: 3200\/2133;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p><span>Credit Image: \u00a9 Anthony Nesmith\/Cal Sport Media<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">SEVEN MORE YEARS OF BENNY \u2694\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>We have signed Zach Benson to a seven-year contract with an AAV of $7.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>Details \u2192 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GWcREJzmxC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/GWcREJzmxC<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7OHpLtjZeN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/7OHpLtjZeN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BuffaloSabres\/status\/2069937554158182730?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 25, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Zach Benson Signs Long-Term Extension With Sabres After Successful Season<\/h2>\n<p>The Chilliwack, British Columbia native scored 13 goals and 30 assists for 43 points in 65 games last season with Buffalo, and nine points in 13 games in the playoffs. Despite being a smaller forward, he is known for his high work ethic and tenacity, as well as being a pest, something that was on full display in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Zach Benson with the equalizer \ud83d\ude2e\u200d\ud83d\udca8<a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/LetsGoBuffalo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#LetsGoBuffalo<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FeaJFMY9Ez\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/FeaJFMY9Ez<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BuffaloSabres\/status\/2055821730447233357?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Benson had quite the story before being drafted, because due to the COVID-19 pandemic having an impact on youth ice hockey, Benson was allowed to play for the Winnipeg Ice of the WHL at age 15. He became a star rather quickly, as he scored 20 points in 24 games in his first WHL season. After he got drafted by Buffalo, he made it onto the NHL roster right away, recording 30 points in 71 games as an 18-year-old.<sup id=\"cite_ref-13\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Benson&#8217;s seven-year contract extension is very reasonable, given his upside, and with the cap rising, this price could become a steal in a few years&#8217; time. It has been a long time since the Sabres have been looking toward an upward trajectory in their future, but it looks like the dark times may be behind them. People want to play in Buffalo, and that could lead to sustained success. Even with <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/tuchal01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-06-24_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Tuch<\/a> departing for the Washington Capitals, at least their top-line winger is secured.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Buffalo Sabres have been very busy this offseason, that is for sure. Coming off a strong season with the Sabres, Zach Benson signs a seven-year extension worth an average of $7.5 million per season. The pending restricted free agent had a bit of a breakout season, especially coming up big in the 2026 Stanley [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5733,"featured_media":492586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4547,34,4548],"tags":[5833,7607],"class_list":["post-492570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sabres","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-buffalo-sabres-news","tag-zach-benson"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492570"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492587,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492570\/revisions\/492587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}