Inside the NHL: Josh Doan's bonus structure is a good sign Terry Pegula is changing some of his ways
According to Spotrac.com, there are 40 players in the NHL who have over $30 million in bonuses on their deals. It's the trend in the industry and the Sabres have to get with the program, Mike Harrington says.
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Props to Sabres general manager Jarmo Kelalainen for getting a Josh Doan extension done in very stealth fashion. Nary a word of rumor was uttered locally or nationally about
Doan's seven-year, $48.65 million extension that kicks in next season.
A cap hit of $6.95 million gives the Sabres tremendous cost certainty and Doan made a clear statement this is the team he wanted to play for moving ahead. But the structure of the contract revealed on
PuckPedia.com offered a window into how much impact Kekalainen is having with owner Terry Pegula.
Doan will get a $3.5 million signing bonus in each of the first two years of the deal, something that has become commonplace in the NHL, but Pegula has been loathe to hand out in recent years.
Sabres right wing Josh Doan moves the puck against the Devils' Paul Cotter on Nov. 28, 2025, at KeyBank Center.
Joed Viera, Buffalo News
The only non-rookie contract bonuses on this year's roster belong to Ryan McLeod ($2 million), Jason Zucker ($1 million) and Bowen Byram ($1 million). No one on a standard contract has any bonus money past this season except for Doan. Rasmus Dahlin got one $5 million bonus on his eight-year, $88 million deal signed in 2023.
"There's always some give and some take in every negotiation," Kekalainen said simply when he met with reporters Thursday in Montreal. "And this was a part that we agreed on."
Players are increasingly clamoring for bonuses in their big-money deals, be they extensions with current clubs or free agent contracts. That's because bonuses, which are paid each July, are given out even in the event of a buyout or lockout. Pegula has seemingly been watching his cash with this organization since the pandemic and during the construction of the Bills' new stadium in Orchard Park, but it's clear he understands he needs to operate differently.
According to
Spotrac.com, there are 40 players in the NHL
who have over $30 million in bonuses on their deals. There are 16 players with more than $50 million. Tops is Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl, who signed
an eight-year, $112 million deal that has $104 million in bonuses on a sliding scale and pays just $1 million a year in salary.
Connor McDavid's deals with the Oilers have also been heavily bonus-laden. He's currently on the last season of an eight-year, $100 million deal that features $86 million of it in bonuses, and signed a two-year, $25 million extension with more than $23 million in bonuses, leaving his salaries for those two seasons at $850,000 and $900,000. The bonus is still calculated as part of the cap, so McDavid will cost $12.5 million on the cap in those two seasons.
If the Sabres re-sign Alex Tuch like they should, Pegula is going to run the team right up against the salary cap for the first time in several years. It's also clear he's spending much more money on his front office staff with Kekalainen's recent hirings of Marc Bergevin, Josh Flynn and Stacy Roest, all of whom have substantial NHL experience on their résumés.
Any long-term contract with Tuch, who turns 30 in May, is going to have to be heavily bonus-laden to give the player some buyout protection. The owner isn't going to just decide he's going to give Tuch the money. He has to give Tuch the money in the format the player and his representatives want.
It's the trend in the industry and the Sabres have to get with the program. Agreeing to take the first step with Doan might be a window into Pegula's evolving thought process.
"He lets us do our job. It's great," Kekalainen said of Pegula. "He's supportive, and obviously he owns the team, so we have to get everything approved by him. But he's been great, just like we agreed on. He's given us the opportunity to run the team, and he lets us do that."
Pegula presser leaves lots unsaid
Speaking of Pegula, you're probably not surprised to learn I watched his Bills news conference last week with quite a keen eye, given the fact he has not taken questions regarding the Sabres since 2020.
The news conference, which combined Pegula and Bills general manager Brandon Beane, was a hot mess that's getting savaged nationally because football fans and national NFL media outside Buffalo haven't been paying attention to a losing hockey team all these years. If you cover the Sabres, you've seen glimpses of this in the past.
We've pretty much only heard from him when someone is getting fired (the last time being the video conference call he did with his wife, Kim, when Jason Botterill was dumped in 2020) or in a rare time when he's ordered to talk, like all NHL owners were told to do after the end of the 2013 lockout.
Pegula's appearance to actually take questions was so surprising and jarring to reporters that it might have made more sense for him to sit there alone for 20 to 30 minutes to discuss his decision to fire Sean McDermott and then leave, allowing Beane to hold a separate session. The back and forth of both of them on the dais at the same time left reporters scrambling to get questions in, and so many "football" inquiries were left unanswered that Beane will need to do it all again when the team hires its new coach.
Would McDermott still be the coach if the Bills had won in Denver? Pegula wouldn't speculate when asked. Here's a couple I have about the Sabres: If Josh Norris doesn't get hurt on opening night to quickly send the team into a tailspin, is Kevyn Adams still the general manager? And is Adams still working if Pegula wasn't at the Black Friday loss to New Jersey, when the "Fi-re Ke-vyn" and "sell the team" chants were at their loudest?
Somehow, in the wake of this affair, I think it may be a long time before I get to ask Pegula any hockey questions. But it sure is weird to suddenly see his hockey team look pretty well-oiled both on and off the ice and see his football team enveloped in the Sabres-like chaos of the last 14 years.
Ticket talk: Stop it
It was pretty obvious what went down at the Sabres' Jan. 15 game against Montreal and what we'll probably see again this Saturday when the Habs return to town: There were far too many red Habs jerseys in the 100 level, clearly from Sabres season ticket holders who sold out to cash in. There were almost none in the 300 level, where Buffalo fans bought in to see the game and the 2006 reunion celebration.
I guarantee you there's season ticket holders out there who cashed out for Saturday to Habs fans weeks ago and are now bummed they did. Learn your lesson: It's time to stop dumping your Habs and Leafs tickets by soaking Canadian fans. Either you're a ticket holder to support your team or just trying to use them as an investment vehicle. If it's the latter, step aside.
Sittler's ’76 jersey part of ceremony
The Sabres' game in Toronto on Tuesday will be a big night in Scotiabank Arena as the Leafs honor beloved ex-captain Darryl Sittler for the upcoming 50th anniversary of his NHL-record 10-point game. Sittler had six goals and four assists in
an 11-4 win over Boston on Feb. 7, 1976, in Maple Leaf Gardens and this is the Leafs' final home game before the anniversary, so Sittler will be honored pregame with some former teammates.
Sittler will wear the No. 27 jersey he wore during that game, as two of his friends tracked down the jersey last year and bought it at auction for $200,000. The Hockey Hall of Fame Resource Center used photos to confirm its authenticity.
“I began to think of the bigger picture, that fans could celebrate it and I could wear it again,"
Sittler told the Toronto Sun. "It’s such a unique jersey and adds so much more flavor to the story. It’s the right time."
Sittler, 75, lived much of his post-playing career in East Amherst. His daughter, Meghan, was a hockey star at Nichols and Colby College and was
inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in November.
Around the boards
- The Sabres hit a 100-point pace for the season with Thursday's win in Montreal, which is remarkable enough on its own. It's even more amazing when you ponder that they were playing at a 73-point pace through Dec. 8, the night they endured a 7-4 crunching in Calgary that dropped them to their 11-14-4 nadir.
- It Makes No Sense Dept.: Big-name teams Colorado, Pittsburgh, Edmonton and Vegas are a combined 3-20 in shoot-outs and all went into the weekend in a playoff spot. Meanwhile, the Sabres (3-0), Anaheim, New Jersey, Ottawa, Nashville and the Rangers are a combined 20-0 in the skills competitions (yes, 20-0) and only Buffalo is in a playoff spot.
- Florida is 14-0-3 in one-goal games, the only NHL team not to drop one in regulation. The Sabres entered Saturday 7-2-5.
- Mitch Marner's return to Toronto with Vegas on Friday night was surprisingly passive. Even got a standing ovation after his tribute video and then the boos returned on puck touches. But it was nothing like the vitriol Jack Eichel got here in 2022. That night was historically intense.
- A final thought: What would you have said to me in September if I you told you by January that McDermott would be fired and Lindy Ruff would be in line to get Jack Adams Award votes as coach of the year?
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