Inside the NHL: Rasmus Dahlin's preseason ranking shows how Sabres have to earn respect
The Sabres got a nice schedule break with 10 of their first 14 games in KeyBank Center, which should be an advantage for a team that finished last season 23-15-3 at home.
We’re roughly a month away from the start of NHL training camp and you’re starting to see a bunch of preseason lists floating around from various sources. Have yet to see anything, for the record, that calls the Sabres a playoff team in 2026. Nor should we. They’re going to have to prove it to people on the ice someday.
Therein lies a big rub for this franchise.
A decade-plus of team failure leads to a lack of respect for the individual. It was utterly foolish for Team USA to leave Tage Thompson off the roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off, as he proved with his stellar performance in the World Championship that put him squarely back on the radar for the Olympics in February.
Alex Tuch finished 15th in the voting for the Selke Trophy last season as the NHL’s best defensive forward, well below where he should have been after one of the best all-around seasons by a forward in franchise history. But it should be noted that was the highest spot in the balloting for any player from a non-playoff team.
Rasmus Dahlin will be entering his eighth NHL season and passed the 500-game mark in March.
Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
Captain Rasmus Dahlin finished sixth in the Norris Trophy balloting, which was the best showing by a Sabre in that category since the days of Phil Housley more than 30 years ago. So with Dahlin coming into his prime at age 25, it should be onward and upward.
But when NHL Network came out with its rankings of the league’s best defensemen on Wednesday, Dahlin was at No. 7. And it’s going to be a tough climb.
“He’s capped right here at No. 7 until the Buffalo Sabres make the playoffs,” network analyst and former New York Islanders blueliner Thomas Hickey said bluntly. “And then he’s in the Norris conversation. Why not him? ... This is a guy that I would just love to see in a playoff series. It would be a coming-out party of sorts. Not that he’s not there now, but we would appreciate the rest of his game.”
Dahlin was ranked just ahead of Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin (No. 8) and Nashville’s Roman Josi (9). The six players in front of him were Norris winner Cale Makar of Colorado, Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes, Columbus’ Zach Werenski, Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen, Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman and Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey.
Dahlin finished behind that group in the Norris voting except for Heiskanen, who missed 32 games after knee surgery.
Dahlin is the only defenseman in the league with 200-plus points and 400-plus hits over the last four years. But with 509 career games, he’s the only defenseman on the list yet to see the postseason. It’s time.
Perhaps Dahlin will be an Olympic standout for Sweden. But until the Sabres finally become part of the postseason, accolades will remain tough to earn.
Where’s the extensions?
As we head toward camps, one of the biggest stories in the league is players who were eligible to sign contract extensions July 1 that would open with the 2026-27 season. Keep in mind this is the last year under the CBA that deals can be signed that stretch eight years. Effective at the start of the new CBA next summer, seven years is going to be the max.
Tuch is in this group, as he’ll play out the final season of the seven-year, $33.25 million contract he signed with Vegas in 2018. A cap hit of $4.75 million is a flat-out bargain for a two-way dynamo who has had a pair of 36-goal seasons for Buffalo in the last three years, and you would think Tuch will make north of $8 million per year in a new deal.
Multiple reports this summer stated the Sabres and Tuch have had some preliminary discussions, but these things generally don’t heat up until September. And there’s nothing from stopping a player from signing an extension during a season either; Dylan Cozens signed his seven-year, $49.7 million deal with the Sabres on Feb. 7, 2023.
General manager Kevyn Adams has publicly tabbed Tuch as one of the team’s core players. But at his exit interview in April, Tuch was oddly noncommittal when he said, “I haven’t really talked to my wife about it. Honestly, that’s the first person I’m going to have to talk to.” Stay tuned.
There are some massive names on this list that have their fan bases on edge. Now eligible to sign extensions is a group that includes Edmonton captain Connor McDavid, old friend Jack Eichel of Vegas, Kyle Connor of Winnipeg, Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers, Martin Necas of Colorado and Adrian Kempe of Los Angeles.
We’re heading into the final year of Eichel’s eight-year, $80 million contract signed with former Sabres GM Jason Botterill on Oct. 3, 2017, two days before the season opener. Eichel turns 29 on Oct. 28 and is a Stanley Cup champion for another franchise. Life comes at you fast.
Sens take huge step on new rink
The long-awaited plan to get an arena for the Ottawa Senators built in the Canadian capital became closer to reality last week when the team and National Capital Commission announced they have reached an agreement for the sale of about 11 acres of land at LeBreton Flats, an area about 10 minutes west of downtown and Parliament Hill, the seat of Canadian government. NHL sources told the Ottawa Sun the team paid roughly $30 million for the land.The Senators have played at Canadian Tire Centre in suburban Kanata since 1996 and the building is a long and traffic-filled drive from the city and much of the fan base. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has been a major proponent of the LeBreton Flats arena but financing required for a project that will surpass $1 billion likely means the Senators wouldn’t play there until the early 2030s.
Meanwhile, work continues in Calgary on $1.2 billion Scotia Place, the Flames’ new home being built adjacent to the Scotiabank Saddledome. It’s slated to open in 2027, so there’s two more seasons of NHL reporters being freaked out while ascending the catwalk to the Saddledome press box. Calgary is the only city with an NHL arena currently under construction.
More arena news
While KeyBank announced its 10-year extension for arena naming rights in Buffalo earlier this month, it looks like we’ll have three newly named NHL arenas for 2025-26:1. On Wednesday, the Tampa Bay Lightning announced that Amalie Arena is no more after an 11-year run. Their home rink will now be known as Benchmark International Arena, with the name coming from a Tampa-based global mergers and acquisitions firm. Like the Sabres, no terms of the deal were announced but most reports cite $5 million annually as a starting point for these kinds of transactions.
The Tampa Bay arena opened in 1996 as the Ice Palace and this will be its fifth name.
2. On Thursday, the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia officially became Xfinity Mobile Arena in a deal announced in May that will last through the 2030-31 season. The Flyers and NBA’s 76ers may open a new arena in the same complex prior to that date.
3. The other change is coming in Minnesota, where the Wild will play in Grand Casino Arena starting Sept. 3 after a 14-year deal with a Native American group. The building had been called XCel Energy Center since it opened in 2000, and the nickname “The X” was part of the sporting lexicon in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
Also on Thursday, organizers for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles announced that corporate names will remain on Olympic facilities for the first time. That means Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles (home to the NHL’s Kings and Olympic boxing/gymnastics) and Honda Center in Anaheim (Ducks, volleyball) will keep their names for the Games.
Around the boards
- Canadiens Hall of Fame defenseman Serge Savard hosted a golf outing for his foundation Tuesday in Montreal to honor the 1976 Team Canada entry in the first Canada Cup that won the event on a Darryl Sittler overtime goal against Czechoslovakia. There were 14 players on hand, including ex-Sabres Gilbert Perreault and Danny Gare, as well as coach Scotty Bowman. Perreault had a big tourney with four goals and eight points, one off the team lead in each category.
- Longtime Penguins beat writer Josh Yohe, now with the Athletic, had a good gripe about the 2025-26 schedule last week. He noted how the Penguins and Capitals meet in Pittsburgh in November and then not again until a home-and-home set in Games 80 and 81, including the only matchup of the season in Washington on April 12.
- Former Sabres scouting director Ryan Jankowski has been reunited with Botterill in Seattle, moving from Utah draft maven to joining the Kraken as assistant general manager.