The Buffalo Sabres didn’t get that “New Year, New Me” memo. And that’s putting it nicely.
Buffalo spent much of 2024 struggling to gather any positive momentum — and its first outing of 2025 remained painfully on brand. The Sabres held three multi-goal leads over the host Colorado Avalanche last week, only to blow each one — including a 5-3 advantage that evaporated when the tying goal was scored with eight seconds left in regulation. Buffalo’s final fate felt determined well before Devon Toews called game with a breakaway goal in overtime to send the dejected Sabres on their way again.
For an encore, Buffalo turned in an inevitably listless performance against the Vegas Golden Knights two nights later. The promised refresh of a new year disappeared for the Sabres, along with another two points.
This isn’t how Buffalo’s season was supposed to go. It’s also not the first time in (very) recent years we’ve said that about the Sabres.
The hockey world has been waiting on Buffalo to snap its 13-year playoff drought (longest among the four major sports leagues) with practically the same mindset that fans have for Alex Ovechkin’s chase to overtake Wayne Gretzky’s scoring record — it’s got to happen eventually, right?
Ovi’s accomplishment is increasingly within reach. But Buffalo’s chances of being back in the postseason picture? Those odds seem only to worsen.
The Sabres are eighth in the Atlantic Division, with a 14-21-5 record. A cringeworthy 13-game winless streak made up a majority of the club’s December and, as noted, the Sabres have started slowly in January.
That’s not to say Buffalo hasn’t had its moments, with flashes of a team better than its woeful record. But sustaining success can be as great a challenge for the Sabres as creating it.
Which leads us to the big question: How can Buffalo salvage its season? The Sabres have burgeoning stars on their bench, exciting prospects ready to contribute soon, plus a veteran coach with a history of winning.
So what are the flaws being repeatedly exposed — and can the Sabres fix them without sliding back into another difficult rebuild?
IT’S NOT THE PALM TREES in Florida that attract NHL players. It’s the chance to win. And Buffalo hasn’t proven (yet) that it can offer that same chance.
Still, when Sabres GM Kevyn Adams met the media in early December, he lamented how Buffalo was “not a destination city right now,” with high taxes and a lack of tropical foliage not attracting free agents. Yet, is a lack of talent really at the core of Buffalo’s ills?
Tage Thompson is a point-per-game player. Alex Tuch has thrived since returning to Western New York as part of the Jack Eichel trade. JJ Peterka is growing into a better player each game. And Jason Zucker — a free agent signee last summer — is overachieving in one of his better seasons. The Sabres have a back end loaded with high draft picks, including captain Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, and Bowen Byram. And Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has exceeded expectations in net throughout Buffalo’s myriad struggles this season.
Ability? The Sabres arguably have enough of it to be a playoff contender — or at least to avoid becoming the league’s 29th-place team and Eastern Conference basement dweller.
Since the Sabres’ aforementioned pre-Christmas skid, there have been repeated calls for Adam’s firing, placing blame on Buffalo’s GM for poor roster construction. Adams didn’t make any major changes over the summer — save for signing Zucker — but that decision to stand pat could be coming from ownership.
When Adams maintained in his December news conference that he “believe[s] in the people in this room … I’m going to war with these guys,” it echoed a message from Sabres owner Terry Pegula to the team prior to its game Dec. 17 — the solution for Buffalo was already in the room.
The Sabres responded to that vote of confidence by losing 6-1 to the lottery-bound Montreal Canadiens. To this point, even the ugliest defeats haven’t cost Adams the gig he took over from Jason Botterill in 2020. Yet, Buffalo holds its lowest points percentage since Adams was hired, a fitting bookend to his tenure with the franchise if the team decides to move on.
But It’s not like Adams hasn’t tried to make Buffalo better. He has churned through three head coaches — most recently bringing back veteran Lindy Ruff — traded former captain Eichel for a solid return, and worked the phones to add impact players such as Byram.
The problem is that Adams’ moves aren’t moving the needle. Yes, Buffalo came close to reaching the playoffs with a late-season surge in 2022-23, but close isn’t good enough. Fresh eyes in management could end the Sabres’ spell of stagnation — or it could plummet them into a dreaded rebuilding mode.
What could be the difference there?
Trades. Immediate trades.
APPARENTLY, PEGULA’S PREVIOUS MESSAGE landed on deaf ears.
That doesn’t mean Buffalo’s higher-ups can’t send another to their group with a well-timed, well-executed trade (or two).
There are tiers of potential trade candidates for Buffalo. Pending unrestricted free agents such as Zucker, Nicolas Aube-Kubel or Jordan Greenway could be flipped for a new player. That’s the Sabres’ safe option, though.
If Buffalo is serious about turning things around quickly, then players such as Power, Dylan Cozens and even Byram start bubbling up. All three young skaters have ample runway into the perceived prime of their careers — something Buffalo wouldn’t want to trade away, but could potentially leverage for players better positioned to help the Sabres win now.
Buffalo needs secondary scoring help. Only four skaters — Thompson, Zucker, Tuch and Peterka — have double-digital goals this season, and only Thompson and Zucker have passed the 30-point mark. The Sabres are averaging over three goals per game (13th in the league), but a pitiful power play (17.4%, 25th overall) has been a detriment. Buffalo is also 26th in generating shots on net (averaging 27.1) and too often, its attack falls flat.
Addressing those issues could give the Sabres’ season a second life, and extend Adam’s stay with the organization. Pending positive results, of course.
It would also behoove the Sabres to start seeing more from some of their purported top-tier players such as Zach Benson (drafted 13th in 2023), Jack Quinn (selected eighth in 2020) and especially Cozens.
Buffalo could be criticized for putting too much pressure on such young players (Benson is 19, Quinn and Cozens are 23). But if the Sabres expect to salvage the second half of this season (and beyond), those core pieces can’t continue underperforming.
Quinn has 14 points in 33 games and is minus-14. Benson has just 13 points in 34 games. And Cozens — in the second season of a seven-year contract worth $7.1 million per year — has only eight goals and 20 points in 40 games. Would Buffalo regret giving up on Cozens at this stage when he hasn’t reached his potential? Or is that pliability what might make Cozens a desirable player elsewhere?
It’s a combination of things that should drive Buffalo’s decision-making. Dipping into the team’s prospect pool for trade options isn’t off the table, but might not support the Sabres’ long-term ambitions. Adams sending Casey Mittelstadt to Colorado for Byram last March was a solid move given how Byram has evolved on Buffalo’s blue line. Byram is also a pending restricted free agent, and the Sabres have been built to hold four left-shot defenders under age 25 on their top two pairings (meaning guys on their not-ideal “off” sides).
Then there’s a question regarding the source of the Sabres’ leadership. Dahlin, 24, is in his first season as the club’s captain, a position previously held by veteran Kyle Okposo. Adams traded Okposo to Florida ahead of last year’s deadline, and tried to shore up the Sabres with older acquisitions such as Zucker, Aube-Kubel, Ryan McLeod and Sam Lafferty. Outside of Zucker — who has been on Buffalo’s top line throughout the season — the Sabres haven’t gotten much from Aube-Kubel and Lafferty (a healthy scratch in that loss to Vegas) in fourth-line roles, and it has impacted the pressure placed on Buffalo’s younger options to bear the brunt of the team’s scoring needs.
All those factors — from age, to experience, to what’s required in the present and future — should be taken into consideration if trades become a reality.
And they have to be. Adams can’t be too attached to anyone in the Sabres’ system, whether he acquired them or not. Buffalo can’t afford to give up on this season either. Even if the postseason is out of reach, the Sabres must try to climb the standings and give themselves a greater chance of pulling in some veteran free agents this offseason — the ones not turned off by a dearth of palm trees.
PERSONNEL CHANGES REMAIN a hypothetical for Buffalo. There must be tangible differences in how the Sabres are playing on a regular basis.
The power play has been a sore spot despite Ruff reentering the fold. He and assistant Seth Appert were supposed to make those units momentum-drivers. Instead, Buffalo has just 19 goals with the extra man — tied for fifth fewest in the NHL — and that’s practically negating its decent scoring (fifth overall) at 5-on-5.
But even when the power play is clicking — as it was against Colorado with two goals — Buffalo’s inability to close out quality teams is limiting. There was a stretch at the end of December, when Buffalo won three straight while outscoring opponents 17-5, that showcased what the Sabres might be at their best.
But those victories came against the New York Islanders, Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues, and those first two clubs are also far outside the playoff mix. A 60-minute effort isn’t something the Sabres deliver as readily when facing a higher-caliber foe.
Ruff was supposed to cultivate a new identity for the Sabres. He should be bringing Adam’s preseason call for “raising the standard” to fruition. But the 64-year-old bench boss is at a repeated loss as to why his teachings aren’t taking hold.
“It’s on me to solve this,” Ruff said after Buffalo’s 5-3 loss to Toronto last month. “This is the toughest solve I’ve been around. It is on me to get these guys in the right place to win a hockey game. And nobody else. Just me.”
That was the Sabres’ 10th loss amid the 13-game slide. Tuch called it “s—ty.” Byram spoke wistfully of a “magic potion” the Sabres could take to get out of their funk. Goaltender Devon Levi credited Ruff with giving Buffalo “a good speech” in the second period — “it touched me and I wanted to go out there and try to win the game” — but intentions couldn’t match actions.
And therein lies a key to the Sabres saving themselves. It’s their will, effort and mental toughness that can determine how the next few months play out. Because even if Adams shakes up the roster, it won’t have the same effect without a buy-in from the guys already on the team.
Adams thought firing former coach Don Granato and bringing back Ruff would show the Sabres their previous lack of success was unacceptable. The Sabres haven’t rallied. Whatever remedy Buffalo needs to succeed remains a mystery — and it can’t for much longer.
What the Sabres can do is stop wasting time. Buffalo has nothing to lose, and that mentality is a luxury when used properly. Why not take the big swing on a trade? Why not inject a little overconfidence into your team? The Sabres should be exhausting every option to figure out not necessarily how but why — from ownership to management to players — they’ve seemingly held themselves back.
A touch of soul-searching might not fix their fortunes this season. But it might start laying the groundwork for a team better equipped to thrive.
That’s where the Sabres might finally find success.
