Last year, with former general manager Kevyn Adams entering his sixth season leading the Buffalo Sabres organization, fan confidence in the front office ranked dead last in the NHL.
Things have sure changed over the past 12 months. Adams was fired in December and replaced by Jarmo Kekalainen, sparking a remarkable turnaround that finished with an Atlantic Division title and the team's first appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011.
It's led to renewed optimism in Western New York, as showcased by the latest fan confidence poll conducted by Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic, which saw the Sabres catapult from No. 32 to No. 10 ahead of the 2026-27 NHL season.
"Much of the fan base recognizes that the team that made magic last year had former GM Kevyn Adams' fingerprints all over it," Luszczyszyn wrote. "Still, there's an air of legitimacy Jarmo Kekalainen immediately brought to the table that caused the team to wake up."
Adams was overprotective of his players and unwilling to accept responsibility for mistakes or his inability to get the club to turn a corner in its previously never-ending rebuild, which was best displayed during his infamous "palm trees and taxes" press conference.
Kekalainen quickly pushed for a much-needed tone shift to the franchise. He brought back accountability, both within the front office and the locker room.
Sabres superstar Tage Thompson appeared on the Spittin' Chiclets podcast in January and recalled Jarmo's first meeting with the players after the GM change.
"You are all pretty much all expendable, and no one is safe," Kekalainen said, according to Thompson. "We are going to start working, and if you don't want to work, you're not gonna be on the team."
It's probably not a coincidence the Sabres' compete level exponentially increased from that point forward, led by the likes of Josh Doan and Zach Benson, two dawgs in every sense of the phrase.
Kekalainen has yet to make his first blockbuster addition to the roster, though he made a push for St. Louis Blues center Robert Thomas ahead of last season's trade deadline and Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck leading up to the 2026 NHL Draft.
His ultimate long-term success will come down to finding the missing pieces for Buffalo's roster — a true No. 1 center and perhaps a new starting goalie — and, of course, bringing a long-awaited championship parade to the city.
For now, The Athletic poll shows he's quickly earned the faith of Sabres fans, giving him some leeway as he waits for the right price to make a marquee acquisition.
Sabres' Jarmo Kekalainen credited for "bold but correct" 2026 NHL offseason moves
Kekalainen isn't completely free from criticism. Some members of the fanbase have grown frustrated with a summer that's included the high-profile departures of Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram without the arrival of any similar proven veterans.
Yet, the former longtime leader of the Columbus Blue Jackets front office has made it clear since taking over in December he's focused on sustainable winning. No shortcuts hoping to catch lightning in a bottle. It's an effort to build toward making the postseason every year.
Through that lens, the exits of Tuch and Byram are understandable.
Those stars ended up signing long-term contract extensions worth a combined $23 million AAV ($10.5 million for Tuch and $12.5 million for Byram) with the Washington Capitals and Chicago Blackhawks, respectively.
It's hard to imagine a world where Tuch's deal will age gracefully as he enters his mid-to-upper 30s and Byram was never going to get the No. 1 defenseman role in Buffalo due to the presence of Rasmus Dahlin, so that type of lucrative contract simply didn't make sense.
Meanwhile, the Sabres front office has instead focused on locking up young players like Doan and Benson to solidify them as members of the core.
"Since then, he's got some fantastic deals under his belt for Josh Doan and Zach Benson, and made the bold but correct decisions to move on from both Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram," Luszczyszyn wrote. "Every player has a price and the Sabres were wise not to go above that for either, even parlaying Byram into a massive draft-day haul."
Part of that haul was the No. 4 overall pick in this year's draft, which was used to select fellow defenseman Daxon Rudolph, who could reach the NHL as soon as the 2027-28 campaign.
So, even if there's a little more uncertainty about the upcoming season as the Sabres make a significant bet on internal improvement, the overall organizational trajectory is unchanged. They're moving firmly in the right direction toward eventual Stanley Cup contention.
Kekalainen operates with an aura of confidence that Adams always lacked and, based on the on-ice results, the players seem to have benefited greatly from that intangible upgrade.
The 60-year-old Finland native's work is far from done, though. It'll be interesting to see if he takes a bold swing at some point during the 2026-27 season or whether he waits until next offseason for that pinnacle moment of his GM tenure in Buffalo.
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