Having made most, if not all of their off-season moves. the Buffalo Sabres now sit and wait for the 2025-26 regular-season to begin. The next five-to-six weeks are almost assuredly going to be rather quiet when it comes to Sabres news, but you can never be completely sure nothing will take place in terms of Buffalo's roster composition.
And while we've been publicly skeptical about what the Sabres' free-agent and trade acquisitions amount to, never let it be said that we aren't open to the possibility of Sabres GM Kevyn Adams' blueprint for success actually panning out the way he's hoping it will.
Maybe Adams is right in depending on the same core of players who failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs last year -- the 14th straight season the Sabres have been on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. Maybe Buffalo's young players -- including star forward Tage Thompson, forwards Josh Norris, Peyton Krebs, Zach Benson, Jiri Kulich and Jack Quinn, and defensemen Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Bowen Byram all will take major steps forward and turn the Sabres into a legitimate playoff frontrunner.
And perhaps Adams was right to bring back veteran goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and youngster Devon Levi, and provide goalie insurance in veteran Alex Lyon. Maybe those three netminders can provide the Sabres with better netminding than they provided last year when they had the third-worst goals-against average (3.50 goals-against per game) and had to turn to journeyman James Reimer to close out last season by looking at least halfway decent between the pipes.
Meanwhile, maybe Adams was correct to bulk up his defense corps as a whole. With the additions of former Utah Mammoth blueliner Michael Kesselring and former Pittsburgh Penguins D-man Conor Timmins now aboard, the Sabres have a top-six group of defensemen that can contribute meaningfully at both ends of the ice. In a league where defense ultimately wins championships, Adams' gamble on deepening his defense corps could pay off spectacularly for the Sabres.
Even After Sabres' Re-Signing Of Defenseman Byram, Has Buffalo Done Enough To Be A Playoff Team?
The <a href="http://thn.com/buffalo">Buffalo Sabres</a> ended speculation -- at least, for now -- of star defenseman Bowen Byram's future, <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/buffalo-sabres/latest-news/byram-bridge-deal-might-just-be-delaying-the-inevitable">signing him Monday to a two-year contract</a> with <a href="https://puckpedia.com/player/bowen-byram">an average annual value of $6.25-million</a>. But while Byram's status with the Sabres has to be a welcome relief for some Sabres fans who wanted himto stay in Western New York, we have to ask once again -- are the moves we've seen from Buffalo this off-season really all there's going to be in terms of changes to the Sabres' lineup?
That said, it's rare indeed that all of any particular team's best-laid plans come to fruition. That's something to bear in mind when you're drawing up expectations for the Sabres next season. Even if one or two of Buffalo's key areas turns out to appear as Adams is hoping, having one area not go as hoped could be the thing that winds up sinking Buffalo's playoff hopes for a 15th consecutive year.
But again, we're trying to look on the bright side here. Maybe players like Power and Dahlin start putting the team on their backs next season. Maybe the same goes for Thompson and Norris. Maybe Ryan McLeod, Jason Zucker and Alex Tuch turn into one of the better second lines in the league. And maybe veterans Jordan Greenway and newcomer Justin Danforth contribute a little bit more than they're contributed in the past.
We're going to be honest -- we still don't see this Sabres group as being a playoff team as currently constructed. But we've watched enough hockey in our day to know that sometimes teams with downgraded expectations turn out to surprise the skeptics and make some hay while the sun shines. That could happen for Buffalo.
One Of These Three Young Sabres Players Has To Step Up If Buffalo Is Going To Be A Playoff Team Next Year
If they're to end their 14-year Stanley Cup playoff drought, the <a href="http://thn.com/buffalo">Buffalo Sabres</a> will need a lot of things to go right. They're going to need solid goaltending from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Alex Lyon and/or Devon Levi. They're going to need veterans including Tage Thompson, Jason Zucker and Alex Tuch to produce what they've usally produced in their NHL career. They're going to need coach Lindy Ruff's instruction to be followed.
If they're going to make the playoffs next season, the Sabres are still going to need at least one Atlantic Division team that was a playoff team last year to drop down the standings. And that's where we see the biggest challenge ahead for Buffalo. That part of it is essentially out of their hands, but all the Sabres can do is improve their bottom line in the win/loss columns and hope there's an opening in the standings they can exploit.
In our estimation, the Atlantic is the league's toughest division, and Buffalo can't let up for even one minute if they intend on being a playoff team. The way the standings could shake out, the Sabres may end up missing the playoffs by one or two points -- a win or overtime or shootout loss might be all that separates them from a wild card berth.
To be sure, many things have to go right for Buffalo to get the monkey off their back and end the stigma of so many consecutive years without playoff action. We're not saying that can't happen -- as we've said above, stranger thing have happened than the Sabres getting some puck luck and career years from many of their players -- but it's far from a sure thing.
THN Exclusive: Sabres 2025 Future Watch Breakdown
The <a href="http://thn.com/buffalo">Buffalo Sabres</a> are a team that's still a ways off from being a true Stanley Cup playoff frontrunner. However, in The Hockey News' 2025 Future Watch edition, writer Bill Hoppe broke down the talent that's in the Sabres' system. Below, you'll find our ranking of Buffalo's top-10 young prospects:
If those positive results do take place, long-suffering Sabres fans will be ecstatic. But if the playoff drought extends to 15 years, nobody will be able to say they didn't see it coming.