Samberg cashes in, but the big money may still be ahead
This isn’t the final payday — it’s the one that tees up the monster deal. And if he keeps trending up, someone’s going to open the vault.

WINNIPEG — Dylan Samberg, the soft-spoken sledgehammer from Hermantown, just got paid.
The 26-year-old defenseman inked a three-year extension with the Winnipeg Jets this week, worth $5.75 million per season, avoiding arbitration and buying the team a couple of his prime years before he hits the open market in 2028. It’s a fair deal for both sides — the kind of quietly important signing that keeps contenders on track without stealing headlines.
But for those of us who’ve watched Samberg since he first laced ‘em up in Hermantown blue and gold, this was always coming. You don’t play 30 minutes a night in March as a high school junior, drag your team to three straight Class A state title games, and lead with that kind of unteachable calm without having something bigger in the tank.

In Hermantown, where every backyard doubles as a rink and every winter produces another grinder with D1 dreams, Samberg was different. Tall, mobile, and mean in the best way. He wasn’t just good — he was composed, surgical, the kind of player you build a team around.
UMD did exactly that.
After leaving the Hawks, Samberg spent three seasons at the University of Minnesota Duluth and won back-to-back NCAA national titles under head coach Scott Sandelin. On those frozen April nights, with ESPN cameras finally catching on, Samberg did what he’s always done — take away time and space, eat minutes, play bigger than the box score.
It was there in Buffalo. It was there in St. Paul. And it’s been there in Winnipeg, where he’s quietly become one of the NHL’s more dependable second-pair defensemen.
Last season was a breakout of sorts — 20 points in 60 games, nearly all of them at even strength, while playing heavy minutes on the penalty kill and facing the opposition’s better lines most nights. The numbers might not wow fantasy nerds, but coaches and scouts know what they’re watching: a shutdown artist who plays mistake-free hockey and ends plays early.
He’s likely to be paired again with fellow Hermantown product Neal Pionk, another Bulldog alum, who’s served as a steadying influence since Samberg joined the club. Together, they give the Jets a Minnesotan blue line duo that doesn't do drama — they just defend, disrupt and quietly hand the puck off to someone flashier.
This new deal keeps Samberg in Winnipeg through the 2027-28 season. By then, he’ll be 29 and staring down unrestricted free agency just as the NHL salary cap is expected to balloon north of $113 million. In other words, this isn’t the final payday — it’s the one that tees up the monster deal. And if he keeps trending up, someone’s going to open the vault.
There was talk of a longer extension, but it would’ve cost Winnipeg more — and Samberg knows his value is only climbing. This bridge deal gives the Jets cost certainty and Samberg a pathway to cash in later, a classic compromise between today’s stability and tomorrow’s reward.
For now, he’s right where he belongs — in the trenches, chewing up tough minutes, making life miserable for anyone trying to carry the puck through the neutral zone.
And somewhere back home in Hermantown, a bunch of young Hawks just found another reason to believe the NHL isn’t some distant dream. It’s just the next step — if you’re willing to skate hard, play honest, and make the safe pass every damn time.
Because that's how Samberg did it. Still does.
And he’s just getting started.
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