Our latest Sabres fan survey brought out some strong feelings. Buffalo has long been a passionate hockey market, but the Sabres have tested that passion and patience with what will soon be a 14-season playoff drought. The NHL trade deadline is a few days away, but the questions facing this team are much bigger than what will or won’t happen on March 7. The roster-building strategy, development of key players and the relationship between the team and the fans are all areas of concern right now. Here’s a look at the results of the 20-question survey. Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill it out, especially the short answer portions. I’ve read every response and will be using a lot of the responses to inform future stories.
A whopping 65 percent of those who responded to the survey rated their confidence in Adams as a zero or a one. This is a sharp decline in approval rating from when we last did one of these surveys at the end of the 2022-23 season. Back then, we asked fans to rate their confidence in Adams on a scale of one to 10, and 83 percent rated Adams a 9 or 10. Only 2.5 percent of people responded with a six or lower. This time, only 3.3 percent of fans rated Adams a four or five with 85 percent responding with a two or lower.
The decline makes sense when you consider where the Sabres were two seasons ago, just one point shy of making the postseason and with plenty of reason for optimism. In the two seasons since, Adams hasn’t shown nearly enough urgency to improve the roster. The Casey Mittelstadt for Bowen Byram trade had a positive impact on the team. Jason Zucker and Ryan McLeod have proved to be two smart additions last summer. But Adams hasn’t done enough to push this roster forward, and the Sabres are still the youngest team in the NHL.
Terry Pegula fared similarly to Adams, but 5.1 percent of you rated your confidence in ownership a four or five. Still, 83 percent of responders rated their confidence a two or lower and more than 67 percent rated it a zero or one. Among the issues raised are the condition of the arena and a question over whether Pegula is willing to invest what is necessary to make the Sabres a winner. Not spending to the salary cap and an inexperienced front office were two issues responders raised, and those are valid.
This season hasn’t done much to change Buffalo’s opinion of Lindy Ruff. The franchise legend returned for a second coaching stint with the Sabres and hasn’t been able to turn the team around. But only 10.9 percent of people rated their confidence in Ruff as a one or two with more than 70 percent of responders rating it three or higher. It’s worth noting that 80 percent of people rated their confidence in Don Granato an eight or higher on a one to 10 scale two years ago. But it’s clear Ruff isn’t the one fans are blaming for how this season has gone.
Confidence in Ruff does not translate to confidence in the coaching staff as a whole. The only new addition to the bench staff was Seth Appert, who was promoted from the head coaching job in Rochester. Ruff didn’t bring in any of his own assistants. The fan base sees that for what it is, and 70 percent of those who responded have a two or lower confidence level in these assistants. If Ruff sticks around for another season with the Sabres, changes to his staff might be necessary.
The Sabres fixed the roof, installed a new video board and made some other adjustments to the in-arena entertainment this season. That didn’t do a ton to move the needle for fans. Common complaints about the arena are the need for upgraded seats, cheaper concessions and cleanliness throughout the arena. Others think the volume of the in-arena entertainment is too loud and that there isn’t enough variety in the game presentation. Of course, a lot of people also simply want to see a winning team that will naturally create more organic energy in the arena on a regular basis.
Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson ate up 98 percent of the vote on this question. And that’s fitting. Dahlin often looks like the Sabres’ best player, especially when he’s playing at 100 percent health. Meanwhile, Thompson’s $7.1 million cap hit is team-friendly given the rate he’s scoring at this season. The other three contracts listed are all questionable at this point. Owen Power should eventually live up to his salary, but he hasn’t reached that level yet. Dylan Cozens and Mattias Samuelsson haven’t played up to their contracts for the last two seasons.
The confidence in Dahlin and Thompson showed up again here, but Alex Tuch and Jason Zucker also each got more than 10 percent of the vote. Dahlin would be my vote, especially considering he played through injury in the early part of the season. He has a real chance to hit 70 points again this season and could even set a career high. Tuch also deserves the love he got here. He’s consistently been one of the team’s best two-way players and is the one taking on a loud voice in terms of leadership.
There are no shortage of options for this spot considering the team is in last place. Cozens was the top vote-getter, and that makes sense to me. So much of Buffalo’s bet on this season was about players like Cozens and Jack Quinn taking another step in their development. Neither has done so, and Cozens has the big salary and alternate captain title on top of it.
Bowen Byram and JJ Peterka have done enough that the majority of our responders think they should be part of Buffalo’s long-term core. Ryan McLeod got a smaller share of the vote but still 41 percent of people want to see him in Buffalo. Quinn was the lowest vote-getter here with only 11 percent thinking he’s worthy of a long-term deal. He has just 23 points in 51 games.
Roughly 75 percent of respondents want to see the Sabres extend Jordan Greenway and Jason Zucker, while 80 percent of you want to see Henri Jokiharju traded. I think that reflects the feeling the Sabres have here, too. The bigger question before the March 7 trade deadline is whether Zucker or Greenway will be willing to sign with the Sabres. If not, a trade becomes more likely. The odds of Jokiharju being back in Buffalo next season seem slim at this point, so finding a new home for him at the deadline makes sense.
This isn’t a huge surprise, but 86 percent of people want to see Alex Tuch get a contract extension. He’s been a major bargain at a $4.75 million cap hit. He turns 29 in May, so that likely contributed to those who are hesitant to hand him big money. But this is a player the Sabres would have a hard time replacing. The question of dollars and term will be a tricky one, but Tuch has earned a nice raise.
The options we gave for this question were a top-six forward, a top-four defenseman, team toughness, veteran leadership and a veteran goalie. But a lot of people wrote in different answers including a new general manager, new ownership and “all of the above.” Top-six forward received the biggest share of the votes, but team toughness wasn’t far behind. After the team’s lack of response to Stefan Noesen’s hit on Thompson before the break, the team’s willingness to push back against tougher opponents is going to be a topic throughout the offseason.
Jiri Kulich took the vast majority of votes for this question. There’s some recency bias here, but Kulich has put together a fantastic rookie season. He has 12 goals (all at even strength) and 18 points in 44 games. He’s spent a lot of time lately as the team’s No. 1 center because of his play away from the puck. He was known for his goal scoring in the AHL, but his competitiveness and attention to detail in all three zones have helped him earn Ruff’s trust this season. He’s been one of the few bright spots in another disappointing season.
When we did a similar survey after the 2022-23 season, 97 percent of respondents thought the Sabres would make the playoffs the next season. Confidence has certainly wavered after two underwhelming seasons since. This time around, 42.4 percent think the Sabres will make the playoffs next season, 29.4 percent think it won’t happen until 2026-27 and 16.7 percent don’t think it will happen until 2028-29 or later.
Of those who responded, 45 percent live out of the area. Another 43 percent said they wouldn’t be getting season tickets and 4.8 percent said they are giving up their season tickets. And only 6.4 percent of people said they were planning to have season tickets next season. This doesn’t represent the entire fan base of course, but it’s worth noting after Sabres COO Pete Guelli sent a letter to season ticket holders selling them on renewing. Those who renew by the March 17 deadline will have their price from this season locked in.
The overwhelming majority of responders noted that the only thing that will motivate them to attend more Sabres games is if the team starts winning again.
What else should we understand about being a Sabres fan right now?
I appreciate how many of you shared your thoughts and feelings on the state of Sabres fandom at the moment. Some of those responses will be included in or inform a future story. Frustration was the word here as the team steamrolls toward a 14th straight season without the playoffs. This question turned out to be a heavy one for people. There is a lot of resentment built up from so much losing. Here's a sampling of some of the responses that sum up the main points of frustration."I don't think Adams is the worst GM in the world and I don't hate Terry Pegula, but they should know that it does not seem to fans like they care about winning," one responder wrote. "Whether it's the lack of moves, the lack of cap spending, the acceptance of losing in general, it doesn't look good."
"We need to distance our emotions from the team and get whatever enjoyment we can from them. It's better than no team, most, well, some of the time."
"There's a whole generation in Buffalo that has never seen a good Sabres team, and it is meaningfully diminishing broader interest in hockey in the region."
"Not spending to the cap, annually, is insulting."
"As a fan, it doesn’t seem like the owner or management cares or listens to the fans."
"I have zero confidence in this team's success so long as Pegula is the owner."