Season in Review | Mattias Samuelsson

Every day through early May, Sabres.com will be recapping each player’s performance with all the numbers, highlights, quotations and content that tell the story of their 2024-25 season.

Mattias Samuelsson, D

62 GP | 4 G | 10 A | 14 P | +3

• Read previous Season in Review profiles here

Season at a glance

Sixty-two games marked a new career high for Samuelsson, who had only one extended absence from the lineup – he missed 12 games beginning Nov. 14 due to a lower-body injury – in his first year as an alternate captain.

“Before I got injured, my game definitely wasn’t up to standard,” Samuelsson said at his end-of-season press conference. “I think after the injury, I put together a little stretch of building my game in the right way, then maybe there were some games here and there in the grind of the year that definitely could’ve been better. But I think the last handful of games at the end, I definitely started to like my game, started to build off a little momentum of playing well.”

The fifth-year blueliner was one of Buffalo’s key penalty killers, leading the team with 2:47 of shorthanded ice time per game and blocking 24 shots on the PK, second most behind Connor Clifton’s 31.

Samuelsson also set career highs in goals (4) and points (14). He posted three multi-point performances after entering the season with just one such game.

He’d played well in past seasons when paired with Rasmus Dahlin, and the same was true in 2024-25. During their 332 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time together, the Sabres held a 51-percent share of shot attempts, goals and expected goals.

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They said it

“Taking pride in trying to be hard to play against every shift, whether it’s in front of our net or in the corners. Trying to make it miserable on the other team’s forwards every night.” – Samuelsson on his style of play when he’s at his best.

“It was nice to see him play the way I believe he’s capable of playing in the last 20 or 30 games, the spot where he started to really find his game. I thought early in the year, he lacked a little bit; he looked like he was playing without confidence and lacked his physicality. He wasn’t killing plays the way he can. When he’s playing his best, he’s heavy and he’s hard to play against. … His season overall wasn’t where he needs to be. The positive of it is he looked like himself down the stretch. When he went back and played with Rasmus, he settled into the way he can play to be effective and also [freed] up Rasmus to be Rasmus. – general manager Kevyn Adams at his end-of-season press conference.