The Buffalo Sabres announced on Tuesday afternoon that they have re-signed forward Patrick Kaleta to a multi-year contract. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it's reportedly worth $1.25 million per season over the next three years.
The 26-year-old Kaleta was a restricted free agent this summer and was coming off a two-year contract that paid him just a little over $907,000 per season.
A sixth-round pick by the Sabres back in 2004, Kaleta has spent his entire career with the team and has scored 26 goals in 267 career regular season games. He's an extremely physical player and the type of guy that always seems to get under his opponents skin. He sometimes takes it a bit too far. Earlier this season, for example, he was suspended four games by the NHL for head-butting Philadelphia Flyers forward Jakub Voracek. It was the third time in less than two years he was involved in such an incident.
In 63 games during the 2011-12 season Kaleta scored five goals to go with five assists while also leading the team with 116 penalty minutes.
He was also one of Buffalo's top penalty killers this past season, averaging nearly two minutes of short-handed ice-time per game. It was the first time he was given such a role in those situations. While the Sabres were just 19th in the NHL last season on the penalty kill, they did allow fewer power play goals with him on the ice than they did without him.
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