Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams has been busy since the team last played in April. He fired Don Granato and hired Lindy Ruff as his replacement as head coach. He rebuilt the team’s bottom six, adding Beck Malenstyn, Ryan McLeod, Sam Lafferty, Jason Zucker and Nicolas Aube-Kubel to bring more speed and physicality to Buffalo’s forward group. He also extended Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to a five-year deal worth $4.75 million per year and bought out the remaining three years of Jeff Skinner’s contract. That’s a lot of business for one offseason, but it was necessary for one of the most disappointing teams in the NHL last season. Adams is entering his fifth season as general manager and still trying to build his first playoff team.
Now with just two weeks until training camp opens, the question is: has Adams done enough? For all the new faces in Buffalo, there are still some big questions facing this hockey team as it prepares to open the season with two games in Prague at the beginning of October.
What are they going to do with that cap space?
When the Sabres bought out Skinner over the summer, they cleared up $7.55 million in cap space this season. The buyout was one that could become an issue down the road, particularly when the Sabres will eat $2.4 million in dead cap hits for three seasons when the deal would have already expired. But it was tough to blame the Sabres for making the move to clear cap space and shake up the lineup when they are trying to stop a 13-season playoff drought. Skinner’s lack of an all-around game and inability to play a role down the lineup made him a sketchy fit with Ruff, so he could be addition by subtraction.It’s still worth pointing out Labor Day has now come and gone and the Sabres are sitting on $8.5 million in salary cap space. Adams has deflected questions about the team’s spending throughout his tenure as general manager, but if the Sabres again carry that cap space into the season, this will be the fifth straight season in which the Sabres have at least eight million in unused cap space. Since Adams took over, the Sabres have consistently been near the bottom of the league in spending. The last time the team spent to the cap ceiling was before the pandemic. Obviously the Sabres haven’t been selling out their arena, either, so revenue hasn’t been easy to come by. But icing a competitive team would help business, particularly when it comes to playoff revenue, which has eluded this team for more than a decade.
Eventually, the Sabres will use that cap space on players like JJ Peterka, Jack Quinn, Devon Levi and other young players developing into capable NHLers. That’s still at least a year away, though. When Adams hired Lindy Ruff, the two described Buffalo’s situation as “win-now.” Not a lot of teams operating in “win-now” mode don’t spend to the salary cap. Of the teams that made the playoffs last season, the Capitals finished the season with the most unused cap space at $1.599 million. It’s tough to compete in the NHL when you don’t spend.
The Sabres could still use that cap space before the season. They could also use it to make a move during the season. So far, though, the biggest addition to the roster in terms of cap hit is Zucker, who last scored 30 goals in 2017-18 and will make $5 million this season.
Will the Sabres have enough scoring?
Related to the spending question is whether this team has enough scoring at the top of the lineup. For all of Skinner’s faults, he still scored 24 goals last season and 35 the season before that. The Sabres got a nice bump in production from Peterka last season, and a fully healthy Quinn will add some pop to the lineup, too. But it’s clear the Sabres are banking on major bounce-back performances from Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens and Alex Tuch, who all regressed from their career-high scoring outputs from the 2022-23 season. Zucker should be able to contribute offensively, but the Sabres’ other offseason additions are bottom-of-the-lineup players who will give the team stronger depth and a faster, more physical playing style.As the roster stands, the Sabres are hoping the answer to the scoring problem is in-house. They were the third-highest-scoring team in the NHL two seasons ago but dropped to 23rd last season. A better power play and better injury luck would help. But Ruff also has to make the right decisions in regard to who plays in the top six. Peterka made a strong case to be a top-line player last season, but knowing Ruff, there will be competition for jobs on the top two lines. The performance of those players will define Buffalo’s season.
How much will Devon Levi play?
We know Luukkonen will be the starter out of the gate after he signed the big extension. He was outstanding down the stretch last season and proved capable of handling a huge workload. That was one of the few positive developments from an otherwise disappointing 2023-24 season. It takes more than one goalie to win in the NHL, though, and Levi put together a strong season of his own. The Sabres handed him too much too quickly last season by making him the opening-night starter and giving him the first four games of the season. He ended up getting hurt and eventually landed in the AHL, where he should have been all along. Levi shined in the minors and was better for it when he got more NHL starts in the second half of the season.With that experience under his belt, he should be more ready for the NHL this season. The Sabres also signed 36-year-old James Reimer to a one-way contract worth $1 million. That salary will make it easier for Reimer to pass through waivers, as he’s likely the team’s No. 3 goalie. But he’s also an insurance option if Levi isn’t ready to be in the NHL full-time or if Luukkonen is commanding so much of the workload that Levi isn’t getting consistent playing time.
Right now, Levi looks like the No. 2 goalie for the Sabres. We just don’t know yet how Ruff will handle the crease.
Can Jiří Kulich or any other prospects make the team?
Since Adams took over as general manager, the emphasis has been on drafting and developing talent from within, a necessary strategy when it’s challenging to attract proven players to a losing franchise in a small market. The arrival of players like Peterka, Quinn, Levi, Mattias Samuelsson and Owen Power provided promising returns on that strategy. Zach Benson even cracked the roster as an 18-year-old last season. Adams’ big draft class came in 2022, though. That’s when the Sabres had three first-round picks, two of which were acquired in the Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart trades. Buffalo is getting closer to seeing some of the products of that draft.The Sabres’ first pick in 2022, Matt Savoie, was traded to Edmonton in the deal for McLeod. The other two first-rounders, Jiří Kulich and Noah Östlund, are still working their way toward the NHL. Kulich is closer, having put together two strong AHL seasons since his draft year. With a strong training camp, he could force his way onto the NHL roster, but it’s far from a lock. He’s a clear power-play threat given his shooting skill. He’s started to develop a more well-rounded game in Rochester, too. In a few weeks, Kulich will get a chance to show if he’s ready to make a case for the opening night lineup when the Sabres start their season in his home country.
While Kulich is the likeliest prospect to push for the NHL, Isak Rosén has also spent the last two seasons in the AHL and is starting to look like a player who could fit as a third-line NHLer given his improvement away from the puck. We also shouldn’t rule out 2024 first-round pick Konsta Helenius. After the way Benson played his way onto the NHL roster last year, the Sabres are clearly open to playing 18-year-olds. Helenius has the competitiveness and hockey intelligence to make a quick jump to the NHL. But Ruff might be more hesitant than Granato was when it comes to putting players in the lineup at that age.
Regardless of how things shake out with the prospects in camp, the AHL roster will again be loaded with young talent. It’s possible Kulich, Östlund, Rosén, Helenius, Anton Wahlberg and Ryan Johnson are all playing there. Add in intriguing Russians like Nikita Novikov, Viktor Neuchev, Aleksandr Kisakov and Vsevolod Komarov, and Rochester should be a fun group to watch again.
Who will play with Rasmus Dahlin?
Rasmus Dahlin is the Sabres’ best player and his salary will match that next season when his cap hit goes up to $11 million. He’s a good bet to be Buffalo’s next captain, too. There aren’t a lot of questions about the type of player or person Dahlin is, but it’s still unclear who he will play with when the season starts. Last season, Dahlin played more than 400 five-on-five minutes with both Samuelsson and Henri Jokiharju, who is back on a one-year deal. He also played a bit with Owen Power and Bowen Byram at five-on-five. Samuelsson and Dahlin were a great pair in 2022-23, but Samuelsson’s injuries have forced Dahlin to find chemistry with other players.Ruff’s choice on Dahlin’s partner will have a ripple effect on the rest of the defensive pairs. Does Power play with Byram? If Samuelsson isn’t on the top pair, does he play with Connor Clifton on the third pair? Where might newly acquired Dennis Gilbert fit into the picture? Ruff has a reputation for getting the most out of defensemen, so how he arranges the pairs will be worth watching in camp.
