Puck Drop Preview: 2025-26 Buffalo Sabres

Last Word on Hockey’s Puck Drop Previews are back for the 2025-26 season! As the regular season approaches, we will preview each teams’ current outlook and stories to watch for the upcoming year. We’ll also do our best to project how things will go for each team throughout the campaign. Today, we’re previewing the 2025-26 Buffalo Sabres. Will they end their 14-year playoff drought, or will they stretch it to 15? Find out our thoughts, next.

2025-26 Buffalo Sabres Preview and Recap of 2024-2025 Season

The Sabres finished seventh in the Atlantic Division last year. Unfortunately, it marked their second consecutive season with fewer points that the year before for Buffalo. Moreover, Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin were fantastic, but struggling depth and goaltending killed their season. Dahlin had 17 goals and 68 points. While Thompson had 44 goals, the second highest in his career. Their biggest trade in the season involved sending second-line centre Dylan Cozens to the Ottawa Senators. The Sabres got Joshua Norris, and others in return.

2025 NHL Offseason

The Sabres shook up the top end of their lineup and added some depth this offseason. Trading JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth for Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan. They also added Conor Timmins for defensive depth. Furthermore, they also drafted big right-shot defenceman Radim Mrtka with the ninth pick in the NHL Draft. They retained Bowen Byram on a two-year contract. Overall, general manager Kevyn Adams and newly hired Jarmo Kekalainen made efforts to shore up the defence. With two first overall picks in the top four with Byram and Kesselring, it’s looking like a strong effort.

Retaining Kevyn Adams was one of the bigger stories this offseason. Adams has failed to make the playoffs in six years as Sabres General Manager. And the team has regressed in the standings for the last two seasons. The playoff drought is starting to become too much for the city to handle. The fans deserve a winning hockey team, and ownership and management has failed to deliver one.

Projected Lineup

Forwards

• • Benson-Kulich-Thompson
  • Zucker-Norris-Tuch
  • Doan-McLeod-Quinn
  • Greenway-Krebs-Danforth

Top Six

The Sabres are once again banking on internal development to really drive their top six. Look at the top line, Benson will be a 20-year-old in his third season. Kulich will will be in his second season. Tage will be Tage, and he will be asked to help carry two young prospects to success against some of the leagues best. The good news is both Kulich and Benson have shown some very nice flashes on offence in their young professional hockey careers. Plus they hold their own defensively as well. They played together at the end of the year and found success, but this is a whole new season with way more expectations. The top line is a gamble for Buffalo, and one that won’t last long if the team gets off to a slow start.

Their second line is one poised with more balance but could also be massively effective in the league. Alex Tuch is a superstar, and he absolutely deserves to be on the top line. However, Buffalo is hoping Thompson can help the young guys along, while Tuch can bolster a line with other players. Norris will be interesting to see. He didn’t play much last season due to injury, but has proven to be a game changer when healthy. Zucker is coming off of a 20-goal season and will likely help that line be an effective both sides of the ice unit for the Sabres. Overall, if Thompson can help these young players develop, the Sabres will have an effective top six.

Bottom-Six Forward Group

This might be some of the best depth Buffalo has had in a long time. Ryan McLeod was everything the Sabres hoped he would be, acquiring him in a trade last offseason. With 20 goals and over 50 points, the Sabres are counting on him having a repeat performance this year. Flanking him is Jack Quinn, who desperately needs a good bounce back year. There’s room for excitement, injuries have delayed Quinn’s development in the NHL, but all the skill is there. And newly traded for Josh Doan, who the Sabres are very high on.

Lastly, Peyton Krebs and Jordan Greenway should be wrecking balls for their fourth line. They both love to play the body, and aren’t afraid to mix it up either. Danforth should blend in with that identity. The depth should be interesting to watch. They’ve needed more grit in years passed, this could be the answer.

Defence

• • Dahlin-Byram
  • Power-Kesselring
  • Samuelsson-Timmins

Top Four

Rasmus Dahlin is one of the best defencemen in the NHL. He doesn’t get the recognition he deserves because of poor team play. But him and Byram on the top pair is a force to be reckoned with around the league. Dahlin is elite on both ends of the ice, and will quarterback the power play unit. Byram proved to play well with Dahlin last season, and this is the right place for him. Byram can also join up on the rush but gets a little lost defensively at times.

On the second pair, Owen Power is poised for a big jump in the NHL. The former first-overall pick has ups and downs in his game. He’s a great puck mover and joins the rush very well. However, Power fails to use his 6’6″ body to play physical, and often gets beat in front of the net. He avoided surgery late last season with a lower-body injury, and hopefully will come into his fourth year with a chip on his shoulder. Kesselring on the second pair should help stabilize the pair offensively and defensively. Overall, this will be an incredibly fun top four to watch.

Bottom Pair

The Sabres are hoping Mattias Samuelsson can bounce back from poor play over the last two seasons. Injuries have played a role in the downturn in performance but, it was bad. Samuelsson was given a $4.4 million-per-year contract a couple seasons ago, and has not lived up to it. Hopefully bottom pair minutes will help bring out the best in him. The Sabres traded for Timmins this offseason to help shore up what was a terrible defence last year. He played well in both Toronto and Pittsburgh last season. Local to Buffalo, hopefully he can continue the good play, and help Samulsson find his former self.

Goalies

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will likely be their starter, with Alex Lyon starting the season as the backup. However, just like the top line, that could change quickly. The Sabres will hope Luukkonen can find his 2023-2024 self. He posted a 2.57 goals against average and a .910 save percentage. This past season, he had a 3.20 goals against average and an .898 save percentage. He went from keeping the Sabres in most games he played to costing them games. Hopefully the improved defence will help keep all of the pressure off of him. Alex Lyon was an excellent offseason signing for the Sabres. Lyon has proved he can step into a starting goaltender role in both Florida and Detroit. Lindy Ruff hasn’t shied away from playing whatever goaltender gives them the best chance to win. The Sabres are hoping that’s Luukkonen, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Lyon was playing meaningful games.

Players to Watch

Joshua Norris

Norris is the new shiny piece to the Sabres offence. An offence that ranked 10th in total goals scored last season. Norris has a lot of pressure. Sabres fans are looking for him to replace the production JJ Peterka had last season while playing a more balanced game defensively. If Norris can stay healthy, he has a strong chance to do both of those things, however injuries have piled up as of late for Norris. Hopefully a change of scenery from Ottawa can help with that.

The Sabres can’t really afford to have Norris go down with more injuries. McLeod stepped up massively when needed last season but the Sabres desperately need better centres than they had last season. Norris being the superstar he once was, or the injury plagued individual he has been of late, will likely decide what type of offence the Sabres have next season. Potentially, he is that impactful.

Jiri Kulich

This young man is poised for a nice breakout year in production. He proved last year to the coaching staff he can handle the defensive responsibility while helping out offensively as well. With 15 goals and 24 points, he had a nice rookie year. Now, there’s massive expectations. If he truly is going to be the teams top-line centre, 24 points won’t cut it. He’ll be playing with Tage Thompson, the team’s best forward. If he slides back into a second or third-line centre role that won’t be the end of the world. However, if the Sabres are going to be successful, they need young players to improve, Kulich being the biggest one.

Plus, Kulich was drafted with the first-round pick Florida sent over in the Sam Reinhart trade. That shouldn’t add any pressure on him personally. But the entire Buffalo front office is hoping that this kid can turn into a superstar to soften the blow of what Reinhart has been able to do with the panthers.

Prediction for the 2025-2026 Buffalo Sabres

The Sabres have some really nice players. Dahlin, Thompson, Tuch, are all superstars. It’s honestly a shame that the team hasn’t been built around them enough for them to end the drought and make the playoffs. If those three guys can perform the way that they’ve performed, the Sabres could slide into a wildcard spot in the east. However the Sabres need a lot to go right for that to happen. They need Benson and Kulich to step up, they need Norris to not get injured. They need the defence to take a massive step forward, and the goaltending to retunr to form from two seasons ago.

It can all happen, but one of the things that plagues this franchise is consistency. You may recall, they haven’t made the playoffs in 14 years. And yet, they seem fixated on doing the same things that have them in this situation in the first place. They retained their GM, their head coach, all of their assistants. Assistants that were responsible for a bottom-10 powerplay. They’ll likely be a middling team, with a chance to compete for playoffs. It doesn’t seem likely things could go wrong enough for them to be in lottery pick contention, but it is Buffalo. For the fans, they’ve been dupped by early season heroics in the past. To believe it, they’ll need to officially get over the hump and qualify for the playoffs.