Zellweger embracing opportunity to join Sabres' D corps

Olen Zellweger was in the middle of his morning workout last Friday when his phone began to light up. When he saw the missed calls from Anaheim general manager Pat Verbeek, he assumed he was on the move.

Indeed, Zellweger had been traded to the Buffalo Sabres. His next call was with Jarmo Kekäläinen.

“It happened pretty fast and I was pretty excited,” Zellweger said Thursday.

The Sabres acquired Zellweger – a high-speed, high-upside defenseman at 22 years old – in exchange for forward Anton Wahlberg and a second-round draft pick. A pending restricted free agent at the time of the trade, Zellweger signed a three-year deal with Buffalo worth an average annual value of $3.1 million on Wednesday.

The idea, Kekäläinen said, is for Zellweger to compete for a second-pair role alongside Owen Power, in which case he would fill the void left by outgoing defenseman Bowen Byram.

It’s an exciting proposition for Zellweger, who played alongside Power in junior tournaments with Team Canada and looked up to Byram as a fellow WHL product. With a little more time and experience, Kekäläinen believes Zellweger can offer many of the same traits Byram did to the Sabres’ defense: speed, possession and offensive playmaking chief among them.

“Trading Bo Byram obviously created a hole,” Kekäläinen said. “This is a young player that has a lot of the same qualities, really good skater, speed, puck play, the ability to move up the ice whether to pass or carry the puck out of the zone. We see a lot of potential in him.”

Zellweger, a second-round pick by Anaheim in 2021, has flashed that potential with three NHL seasons already under his belt. He set career highs in games played (76) and points (22) last season while matching his previous high with seven goals.

The metrics, meanwhile, showcase a positive on-ice impact. The Ducks owned a 53.3-percent share of shot attempts with Zellweger on the ice at 5-on-5 last season, which was the best mark among their regular defensemen.

And then there’s his speed, which ranks among the league's elite defensemen. According to NHL Edge, only Matthew Schaefer, Cale Makar, Jake Sanderson and Quinn Hughes had more speed bursts of 20-plus mph than Zellweger in 2025-26.

"I think I provide two-way play," he said. "I think I have a lot of speed, a lot of offensive instinct."

It’s precisely the sort of skill set that can fit within the Sabres’ system. Buffalo’s defense corps – particularly its top four of Rasmus Dahlin, Mattias Samuelsson, Power and Byram – was the engine of its 109-point campaign in 2025-26, with blueliners routinely joining the attack and playing around opposing nets.

Zellweger saw that identity firsthand, having played two high-scoring games against Buffalo in the second half of last season (a 5-3 Sabres win in January and a 6-5 Ducks win in March).

“They’re all really good skaters,” Zellweger said of the Buffalo defensemen. “They all have a great head for the game. Lots of really good puck decisions. They kind of quarterback the whole system, I guess. I love watching all those guys.”

The job, of course, will have to be earned. Kekäläinen mentioned 6-foot-8, right-shot defenseman Louis Crevier (acquired in the Byram trade) as another candidate for a second-pair role. Conor Timmins and Zach Metsa will also be returning from last year’s group.

Zellweger is embracing the challenge.

“I’m going to come in there and put my best foot forward to try to earn the most opportunity I can,” he said.