Reliving the Buffalo Sabres infamous playoff drought
By Sion Fawkes
Bad drafts and signings
The jury is still out on the likes of Jack Quinn, Owen Power, and J.J. Peterka, but all signs are pointing north. Yet outside of Rasmus Dahlin and Jack Eichel, the Buffalo Sabres hit on who, exactly? You could say Sam Reinhart, but he never lived to the expectations of a second overall pick.
While I think the golden trio listed at the top of this section will develop into sound players along with Dylan Cozens, Rasmus Asplund, Victor Olofsson, and Mattias Samuelsson, the team’s inability to draft has kept them in the doldrums. Casey Mittelstadt can’t stay healthy, Alexander Nylander was horrific, Brendan Lemieux never played for the Sabres, and Rasmus Ristolainen never quite lived to expectations.
Then there were bad signings. The Buffalo Sabres signed winger Ville Leino through the 2016-17 season, only to get three years and 46 points out of him. In 2018-19, the Sabres thought it was a good idea to inject $76.6 million into the team. What they got was 76 points.
They signed Jeff Skinner to a contract extension worth $72 million through the 2026-27 season. And while Skinner finally found his groove, he rewarded the Sabres with 37 points in 112 games between 2019-20 and 2020-21.
And you can’t forget about all the trades that took place. The upside is that the Ryan O’Reilly trade fetched Tage Thompson, the Eichel trade brought in a ransom, and the Reinhart trade gave the Sabres Devon Levi. But the common denominator is that none of the above wanted to play in Buffalo. Reinhart grew impatient, Eichel’s situation was a fiasco, and O’Reilly seemingly lost his passion for the game before winning a Stanley Cup in 2019.