Around the Atlantic: What's Next for the Sabres?

Fun hockey.  Excitement about the future.  The sense that the people in charge are building something worth waiting for.  In Buffalo!

Few fan bases have suffered quite like Sabres fans have for the last—actually, why bother putting a number on it?  There's no point lingering on the lean years, because the 2022-23 Buffalo Sabres were fun, and not just a little fun.

Yes, they missed the playoffs by one point, but their 42 wins and 91 points are the franchise's best results since it last qualified for the post-season in 2010-11.

Under head coach Don Granato, the Sabres have shown a unique emphasis on development.  Every team, especially those somewhere in the throes of a rebuild, talks about developing young players, but many seem reluctant to back that up.  That incongruence becomes especially pronounced once young players reach the NHL level.

We know that NHL coaches and players never lose on purpose, but that tanking tends to happen more subtly: signing a goaltender you know isn't going to play well, holding players out for far longer than their injuries would dictate in a playoff race, leaving players who could help the cause in the minors or in junior.  

Still, NHL coaches almost always seemed irritated at the fact that they have to use young players, much less develop them, even though doing so is an obvious necessity to rebuilding.  Not Don Granato, and the results speak for themselves.

Under Granato, Sabres centerman Tage Thompson (whom Granato coached at the US NTDP) has exploded.  In '21-22, he scored 38 goals and 30 assists, prompting questions about whether it was a one-year shooting percentage wonder.  In '22-23, Thompson leveled up again, putting up 44 goals and 47 assists.  His combination of size, speed, and skill are singular around the league, and there can no longer be any denying that he is a blossoming star.

Rasmus Dahlin, the first overall pick in the 2018 Draft, looks like a franchise defenseman, the kind of player who can challenge for the Norris for the next decade plus, and Owen Power—taken first overall in 2021—isn't far behind.

In net, the Sabres have 21-year-old Devon Levi, who debuted in the spring after winning consecutive Richter Awards as the top goaltender in college hockey for Northeastern.  Levi, whom Buffalo acquired in the trade that sent Sam Reinhart to Florida, played in just seven games but projects to man the Sabre crease for years to come and do so with alacrity.

Sure, the jump from fun team on the playoff bubble to Cup contender isn't an insignificant one, but when you look at where they've been, it's hard not to marvel at the Sabres' progress.

This is an easy one; the Sabres are trending way up.  Without wishing to delve too deeply into the tawdry details, things were remarkably bleak in Buffalo as recently as two years ago.

The team couldn't seem to stop re-building.  Star players reported falling out of love with the game.  The team was perpetually tanking, and even that didn't seem to be going great.  Ownership would try to placate the fan base with new throwback uniforms (which admittedly all looked great), but there was nothing positive to be said for the on-ice process or results.

Watching Jack Eichel, once billed as the man to save the Sabres, lift the Cup with Vegas could have been devastating, and perhaps it would have been had it happened a year or two earlier.  Instead, Sabres fans can be happy for their erstwhile captain with the assurance that their own triumphs are coming.

For GM Kevyn Adams, this doesn't need to be a busy summer.  Buffalo is in the fortunate position of having minimal business to attend to on the free agency front.  Vinnie Hinostroza is a UFA, and Kale Clague and Tyson Jost are RFAs.  

The Sabres have a nice blend of ages across their lineup between up and comers like Power, Dylan Cozens, and JJ Peterka, in-prime stars like Thompson and Dahlin, then quality role players in their late 20s like Victor Olofsson, Alex Tuch, and Jordan Greenway.  Dahlin will be an RFA next summer, but Thompson and Cozens are already signed through 2030, and the Sabres should have plenty of cap to work with when it comes time to secure the long-term futures of players like him, Power, and Peterka.

Like any team around the NHL, Buffalo would of course benefit from some added depth on the blue line or a bit more secondary scoring.  Nonetheless, given the age profile of the roster, this is a team that could run it back and expect to improve.

For the first time in this "Around the Atlantic" series, we are talking about a true peer to Detroit.  While Boston, Toronto, Tampa, and Florida have been fixated on the post-season for years, Buffalo is—like Detroit—still rounding into its contention era.  For the Red Wings, the Sabres, Senators, and Canadiens are probably much more reasonable measuring sticks than any of the Atlantic's four post-season entrants a year ago.

With that in mind, it's also undeniable that, at least for now, the Sabres are ahead of the Wings on that journey.  They won seven more games and accrued 11 more points in the standings than Detroit a year ago, and there's a bit less speculation required to envision an eventual Cup contender based on the players who have already appeared at the NHL level.

If the Bruins, Leafs, and Lightning are the Atlantic's old guard, and Buffalo, Ottawa, Detroit, and Montreal the upstarts attempting to invert the division's hierarchy, it must be said that the Sabres—at this stage—have a leg up on their competition.