Zach Benson is making himself some serious cash.
The Buffalo Sabres’ 21-year old winger is having an incredible playoff run, and he’s doing it on the verge of hitting restricted free agency.
He won’t have quite as much negotiating power as an RFA, but he’ll still get a new contract, and it could pay him quite handsomely.
Conveniently on Monday right before the Sabres play Game 7, fans had a chance to check out the release of the popular AFP Analytics free agent projection system.
The website dishes out possibilities for every pending free agent, and Benson’s numbers are fascinating.
Because of Benson’s age, the projections actually provide both a short-term and a long-term deal option.
The short-term deal would be two years at $4.196 million per year, just under $8.5 million in total value. If Benson took that, the hope is that he’d be paid much more when he hit full free agency in a couple years.
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On the other hand, Benson could sign on long-term in Buffalo. If he did that, AFP Analytics thinks it’d be seven years at $6.975 million per season. That gets to about $48.8 million for the life of the contract.
And at this point, Benson has the chance to keep being a playoff hero and push that price even higher. By the time the postseason is done, there’s a chance he’s a $50 million player.
The Sabres certainly hoped that Benson would pan out in a big way, but it’s unlikely they saw it happening this fast. He never really needed seasoning in the minor leagues.
He simply came to the NHL, put the pedal to the floor and proved he could make an impact.
Now he’s doing it on the biggest stage for Buffalo’s first playoff team in 15 years. It’s been a special run, and whatever contract comes for Benson soon enough will be very well deserved.
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