The Buffalo Bills' 2025 season didn't exactly end in the most spectacular fashion, with the team losing in overtime of the NFL's AFC Divisional Round to the top-seeded Denver Broncos.
But their 2025 season, in addition to their recent run of form, can actually serve as a lesson for the NHL's Buffalo Sabres as they hit the end of the route back to playoff contention and merge onto the highway that is the playoff picture. I'm not going to provide a detailed Wikipedia-esque season-by-season breakdown of the Bills franchise since 2017, but I am going to use a couple key seasons to determine both a foundation of success and a cautionary tale for this iteration of the Sabres.
The Bills' playoff-drought-ending season does have some similarities and differences to this season of Sabres hockey
The Bills' 2017 season was notable as it saw the team finally end what was a 17-year postseason drought.
And that is a similarity right off the bat; like the Bills, the Sabres are on the verge of ending what is almost a 15-year playoff drought.
We can also see some similarity between the Bills and Sabres through their respective odds at making the playoffs. Heading into the 2017 season, SportsLine had the Bills at a 20% chance to make the playoffs and with a decent chance to hit seven or eight wins. For the Sabres, the odds of making the playoffs weren't exactly in their favor heading into the 2025-26 season; BetMGM had the Sabres at +165 odds to make the playoffs (those were the 12th-best odds in the East) while MoneyPuck gave them around a 38% chance to end their postseason drought.
While the 2017 Bills and 2025-26 Sabres are similar in considering the fact that both were not regarded as favorites to make the playoffs, the way they got into the playoffs does differ quite considerably. The Bills started the 2017 season with a 5-2 record before a three-game losing streak threatened to derail any early-season confidence. But wins in four of their final six games helped the Bills to a winning record, and a upset win by the Cincinnati Bengals over the Baltimore Ravens helped push Buffalo into the AFC's final wild-card spot.
For the Sabres, there was no strong early-season run. An 0-3-0 start put the team behind the eight ball quite quickly and the team was playing .500 hockey well into December. But from there, the Sabres have gone 38-9-2 to completely change their fortunes, take control of the Atlantic Division, and put themselves within touching distance of the 92-point threshold that has separated the playoff field from the draft lottery teams over the past few seasons.
The Bills finally broke through in 2020 after a quick changeup, but are the Sabres already at their playoff breakthrough?
The Bills' 2020 season saw the team finally earn their right to be one of the NFL's contenders after claiming the AFC East title and win two playoff games en route to an appearance in the AFC Championship Game.
But could the Sabres already be at the point where a deep playoff run is on the table. We've already seen conversations pop up about the possibilty that Buffalo is already in its contention window, and there is a road to being a Cup contender as soon as this season. If the Sabres were to claim the Atlantic Division crown, they would secure a first-round encounter with one of the Eastern Conference's two wild-card teams; at this moment in time, those teams are the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings. On top of that, the Sabres would secure home-ice advantage for at least the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and I'm 200% sure that the team's passionate fanbase would pack KeyBank Center eight times out of eight (home ice advantage in an NHL postseason series is worth four home games in a seven-game set).
While it took two seasons for the Bills to follow their 2017 playoff berth up with a sustained playoff run, it seems that the Sabres might be able to one-up their NFL counterparts and bridge a playoff berth with a deep run at the first time of asking.
Despite success in 2020, the Bills haven't been able to reach the next step. How can the Sabres learn from the Bills' failures?
Since returning to the AFC Championship Game, the Bills haven't exactly been able to replicate their success from that 2020 season.
In the five seasons that followed, the Bills made it to the AFC Championship Game just once while losing to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in three of them. The Bills would win the AFC East four times out of five, but they are coming off of a 2025 season that saw them lose the AFC East to the Patriots and lose out on what was arguably their best path to the Super Bowl in recent memory. As a result, the Bills offloaded head coach Sean McDermott and completed a series of roster transactions to revamp their roster for yet another push for the Super Bowl.
Outside of the playoff losses, Buffalo's shortcomings can be attributed to a lack of offensive drive, particularly when it comes to establishing a bona fide WR1 in the years post-Stefon Diggs. The defense has also been a question mark in recent years, only recently being reinforced via the offseason.
The Sabres can learn from this in many different ways. Most importantly, they absolutely have to reinforce this roster in the offseason. That doesn't necessarily mean caving to an expensive contract extension for Alex Tuch, but it does demand being active in the offseason trade/free-agency market. Players like Bobby McMann and Anthony Mantha could be valuable additions via unrestricted free agency, while a move for RFA's like Jason Robertson could accelerate Buffalo's ascent.
The three aforementioned players could gel in Buffalo's system quite well. McMann is the kind of forward who brings the necessary grit and scoring depth needed to win the big games; such qualities could actually bode well if the Sabres are forced to move off of Tuch. Mantha is having a year to remember for the suddenly-contending Pittsburgh Penguins, while Robertson has helped fuel the Dallas Stars' recent 14-1-1 run that could very well be the factor that pushes the Stars into the Cup Final.
The same can be said for the Sabres' draft strategy. Acquiring an extra couple of picks in this year's draft could help the Sabres add a few pieces to their farm system and allow the team to develop players in-house with their 2025-26 roster members acting as mentors.
The future possibilities are endless for this Sabres team. And their crosstown friends at Orchard Park can be seen to give them a lot to learn from; these are lessons that can be seen as both good and bad.