The Buffalo Sabres now have this year’s first-round draft pick under contract.
The Sabres announced Tuesday that Radim Mrtka has signed a three-year, entry-level contract. Terms of Mrtka's contract were not disclosed, but an entry-level contract has a maximum value of $975,000, according to the NHL’s current collective bargaining agreement.
The Sabres selected Mrtka at No. 9 in the NHL draft last month. Mrtka is a 6-foot-6 defenseman from Czechia who played for the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League last season.
Defenseman Radim Mrtka (57) skates during the Sabres development camp scrimmage at LECOM Harborcenter on Thursday, July 3, 2025. (Joshua Bessex/Buffalo News)
Mrtka scored three goals and had 32 assists and was a plus-10 in 43 regular-season games with the Thunderbirds. He also played for Ocelari Trinec in Czechia’s Extraliga before joining the Thunderbirds in November.
Sabres assistant general manager Jerry Forton said after the draft in June that he had "21 or 22" viewings of Mrtka last season.
"He played in the men's league (in Czechia), and he's probably too good to play junior hockey over in Czechia and most of Europe, but the men's league was accelerated for him," Forton said.
"He came over to play in Seattle, and when you saw the growth in his game, jumping in the WHL, which is not an easy league, just adjusting to the size of the rink and the different style of play for a defenseman, I caught a couple of poor games early, as did some of our other scouts, but we also caught some high-end games, and at about the 10-game mark, he just took off."
Mrtka is the first player from this year’s draft class to sign with the Sabres, and is at least the sixth first-round pick from this year’s draft to sign with the NHL team that drafted him.
This also means Mrtka will likely take part in the Sabres’ annual Prospects Challenge tournament, which opens Sept. 11 at LECOM Harborcenter, and will participate in the Sabres’ training camp in September.
Mrtka participated in the Sabres’ development camp earlier this month at Harborcenter, which gave him a taste of how he has to prepare for the NHL.
“I learned about it, a little bit, when I was a kid, but here, it’s a little bit different,” Mrtka said. “It’s more professional. I took a lot of things (from it), and it’s going to be great for me to do it.”
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