Buffalo Sabres defenseman Jake McCabe passed up his scheduled arbitration hearing by agreeing to a two-year, $5.7 million contract.

The deal was reached Saturday, a day before the player's hearing. McCabe was a restricted free agent, and both sides were seeking a one-year contract in arbitration.

Playing mostly a top-four defensive role during his four full seasons in Buffalo, McCabe matched a career high with four goals and added 10 assists in 59 games in 2018-19. He ranked fifth among Sabres defensemen in averaging just less than 19 minutes of play last season.

McCabe, 25, has suffered a number of injuries over the past two seasons. He missed the final two months of 2017-18 after having surgery to his thumb and shoulder, missed three weeks in December with an upper-body injury and was expected to be out for the rest of last season after suffering an upper-body injury in March. But he came back for the Sabres' final four games.

He returns to a Sabres team that has not reached the playoffs since the 2010-11 season.

A 2012 second-round pick, McCabe has 14 goals and 61 points in 274 career games.

The signing adds to Buffalo's salary-cap crunch, with McCabe's contract pushing the team to within about $300,000 of the NHL's $81.5 million payroll limit for next season.

That means the Sabres will be over the cap once goalie Linus Ullmark's contract is determined following his arbitration hearing held Friday.

Teams have until a few days before the season opens in early October to comply with the league's salary rules.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.