Sabres Overall Rebuild Grade: D
Core: A-
Overall Roster: D
Prospect Pool: B
Head Coach & General Manager: D
Sabres Years of Mismanagement Leave Them a Mess
The Buffalo Sabres have the longest playoff drought in the NHL, with their last appearance in 2011. A playoff drought that lasts this long usually speaks to the incompetence up top, whether it’s the ownership, the GM, or both.
Terry Pegula’s time as the Sabres owner is worth noting in the rebuild and continued failures. There can be books written about how he’s made the Sabres the opposite of a destination but to try to sum it up, here are some bullet points to keep in mind.
- Pegula purchased the Sabres in 2011. He bought the Buffalo Bills in 2014, and his interest in the NHL team hasn’t been the same.
- Among all the owners in the NHL, Pegula is one of the cheaper ones, especially off the ice. The NHL has a salary cap but owners can cut corners elsewhere, and he has.
- Pegula rewards loyalty, which explains why he’s stuck with the same GM through multiple disappointing seasons, and in part, it explains re-hiring Lindy Ruff, who coached the team previously.
The GM he’s stuck with is Kevyn Adams, who, at times, was seen as the team builder who could bring this team back to the playoffs but over time, has lost trust with the fan base. The big issue is asset mismanagement with him. Take the 2023 trade deadline, where the Sabres were in a fight for wild card position and had prospects on top of prospects but Adams didn’t want to move on from any of them, leaving the team with an underwhelming deadline (they missed the playoffs by one point while the Florida Panthers made it. You probably know what happened to the Panthers next).
The frustrating part about the Sabres, even after trading JJ Peterka in the offseason and Dylan Cozens at the deadline (for an unknown in Josh Norris), is that the core is still great. Tage Thompson is one of the best scorers in the NHL, and Rasmus Dahlin is an elite two-way defenseman. With Alex Tuch, Bowen Byram, and Owen Power rounding out the core, the Sabres have the elite talent to get them to the playoffs.
The Sabres also have a lot of good players on an individual level. As a team, they don’t work well together (for example, finding the right linemates for Thompson has always been a tough assignment). It’s a reflection also of the poor coaching. Ruff was a great coach back in the day. Was is the key word as the game’s passed him by and he has a style and sticks with it, making the Sabres often look like a worse team on the ice, despite at times being the more talented group.
Outsider’s Perspective
There isn’t a lot of optimism in Buffalo regarding their rebuild. There also isn’t a lot outside of Western New York. One writer noted. “Their rebuild has been a disaster, since they have failed for the second time to build around the core players they drafted (Dahlin, Tuch, Thompson), and it might be time for a third one.”
There’s a good chance that the Sabres miss the playoffs again and might have to rebuild after another failed rebuild. It would mean Pegula, who has refused to move on from Adams, fires him and Ruff to start from scratch. The good news is they brought in Jarmo Kekalainen to join the front office, and while his tenure as GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets didn’t end well, he was a great drafter and developer while showing a willingness to be aggressive, something the Sabres need.
The Bottom Line
It’s hard to ignore the dark overcast over Buffalo (not the weather that is). From the top down, the Sabres have become the opposite of a destination. Players don’t want to sign there, and coaches aren’t looking to save this franchise, something that also explains the Ruff hiring. A great season, and a shift in Pegula’s mentality, can change that but the Sabres still look like a team poised for failure.
