The Buffalo Sabres ended the calendar year 2025 on a high. But in 2026, Sabres GM Jarmo Kekalainen has to do everything in his power to get his team into the Stanley Cup playoffs and end Buffalo's 14-year playoff drought. And that means going all-in by or before the trade deadline.
As the calendar year 2025 comes to a close, the Buffalo Sabres are riding high on a nine-game win streak as they were set to take on the Dallas Stars in Dallas for a New Year's Eve game. But regardless of how that game turns out, the Sabres have given new GM Jarmo Kekalainen quite the conundrum – does he use Buffalo’s trade assets to bulk up and push for a playoff spot, or does he focus on the long-term and find a way to get better beyond this season?
We think the answer to that question is crystal clear: If we were running the Sabres, we’d be looking to get over the hump this season and end the Sabres’ Stanley Cup playoff drought at 14 years.
While it does make sense to trade with the long haul in mind, Buffalo desperately needs the psychological boost that a playoff appearance would bring to the franchise and its long-suffering fan base. And given that Kekalainen will have approximately $8.73-million to play with by this year’s March 6 trade deadline, he’ll be wasting it if he holds onto it or spends it on a longer-term asset.
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Now, maybe there’s a way Kekalainen can address both his team’s short-and-long-term needs via trades this season. But if there’s going to be a priority for Buffalo, it has to be on the here and now. Kekalainen needs to send a message to his players, and that message has to be that they need to seize the day and rise further up the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division standings.
As it stands at the moment, the Sabres are just one standings point behind the back-to-back Cup-champion Florida Panthers, and Buffalo has one game in hand on Florida. Imagine what it would mean for the Sabres to be the team that pushed the Panthers out of a playoff position. That alone would make Buffalo fans giddy with glee.
But now imagine the other side of that competitive coin – imagine the crushing blow that would come if the Sabres finished one or two points out of a post-season spot. It would be another devastating chapter for a franchise that has had far too many of them.
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Sabres fans may differ with our perspective, and that’s OK. There’s a case to be made that this organization has to focus on where it will be a year or two from now. But we think Kekalainen has to prioritize this season, because right now, there’s no question this Buffalo team is in dire need of something tangibly positive. And Sabres supporters aren’t going to get that if their team falls short of the playoffs.
In 2026, the goal for Buffalo couldn’t be clearer. It’s playoffs-or-bust for the Sabres, and Kekalainen has to do everything in his power to get them to hockey’s biggest tournament this spring.