Sabres sign Connor Timmins to two-year contract

The Buffalo Sabres announced on Sunday that they have agreed to terms on a two-year contract with right-handed defenseman Connor Timmins.

The Sabres previously acquired Timmins back in June in a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins that sent a second-round draft pick and Connor Clifton the other way. Buffalo also got defenseman Isaac Belliveau back in the trade.

“He’s a solid two-way player that is big, a right shot, and I think it just really solidifies our D corps moving forward,” general manager Kevyn Adams said via the team’s press release.

Timmins, a 26-year-old native of St. Catharines, Ontario, will earn $4.4 million in total on the contract, setting the average annual value at $2.2 million.

Adams’ acquisition of Timmins was part of a broader effort to reshape the right side of the Sabres’ defensive unit, as the club also brought in Michael Kesselring as part of the trade that sent winger J.J. Peterka to the Utah Mammoth.

Timmins has spent the past three seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he put up 14 points in 25 games during his time with the club at the end of the 2022-2023 season.

A year ago, he skated in 51 games while scoring two goals and adding six assists for a total of eight points.

Barring any other moves, Buffalo’s 2025-2026 blue line is set to feature Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Mattias Samuelsson, Kesselring and Timmins along with Bowen Byram, who was the subject of much trade and offer sheet speculation but wound up signing a two-year contract with the Sabres that will take him right to unrestricted free agency.

Buffalo will enter next season looking to snap the longest active playoff drought in the NHL, one that dates back to the 2011-2012 campaign.

The Sabres went 36-39-7 last year while finishing in seventh place in the Atlantic Division.