At age 36, defenseman Luke Schenn has seen and done it all.
He was with the Toronto Maple Leafs when they were mired in an eight-year playoff drought, and when they ended a 19-year postseason series win curse.
He won two Stanley Cups when the Tampa Bay Lightning were at the peak of their powers.
And he was part of the Nashville Predators squad that used a cancelled trip to a U2 concert as an opportunity to go on a late-season run and snatch a playoff berth.
Now, after being a part of a Presidents Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets team, he is arriving at the next stop on his journeyman career. After a trade deadline move that saw the Jets ship him and Logan Stanley to the Sabres, Schenn will have the opportunity to use his experience to help push the Sabres over the finish line and end their decade-and-a-half-long playoff drought. Not only that, but his experience could also be of benefit if the Sabres find a way to earn a top seed and go on a deep postseason run.
But even in considering the fact that Buffalo is receiving an additional dose of veteran experience via the addition of Schenn, this cannot be more than a brief pitstop on the ex-Maple Leaf's journey.
The biggest reason Schenn should be regarded solely as a rental? Age.
Of the NHL's 32 teams, the Buffalo Sabres have the sixth-youngest roster at an average age of just over 27. While it has seemed like an eternity since they entered the league, Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson are only 25 and 28 years old respectively. Elsewhere, Josh Doan just turned 24 and Owen Power is 23.
On the other end of the age spectrum, just five players are older than 30, with only one of them over the age of 35. That player is Schenn, who is playing in his age-36 season.
Like the rest of the roster, the older members of the Sabres are capable contributors. Jason Zucker is doing well to build off of a strong 2024-25 season, while Sam Carrick has been an impressive addition for the team. And while it doesn't exactly show on the stat sheet, Schenn is capable of contributing on both ends of the ice as a physical and imposing player.
That said, the Sabres are in a very unique position. With about half of their roster at or about to enter their prime, Buffalo's return to the playoffs is being timed up perfectly with the peak performance of many of their players. If the Sabres play their cards right for the rest of the regular season, the team will certainly be able to put together a deep run at the first time of asking.
But if the Sabres are to remain one of the NHL's top 16 teams, they cannot bank too hard on age 30-plus veterans. It's different if a team is in the early years of a rebuild or if a team is going on one last all-in run and they're bringing in a big-name veteran to get them a Cup, but Buffalo is in neither of the two positions. Not only is a rebuild falling further out of the picture, but the Sabres' contention window is only just opening up.
As a result, the Sabres shouldn't look to get much younger or much older; rather, they should look to maintain the average age of their current roster.
Enter Schenn. As mentioned before, he is the exact type of defenseman a team needs to get over the hump and make the playoffs following years of turmoil or to go on a deep run and play against teams that get a lot of hits. And he's the exact kind of player that this iteration of the Sabres needs to learn from as they get set to play their first career playoff games.
But is he the kind of player that helps sustain playoff success? Since leaving the Lightning, a trend of sorts has appeared alongside Schenn's career path, one which has seen him join a new team the season after making the playoffs with another. After getting the Maple Leafs to the second round in 2023, Schenn signed with Nashville in free agency and then helped get them into the playoffs during the 2023-24 season. After Nashville's 2024-25 season went off the cliffs, Schenn helped push the Jets past the St Louis Blues and into the second round of the playoffs. Now, after Winnipeg's 2025-26 season briefly stalled, Schenn finds himself as part of yet another playoff push.
If the trend continues, Schenn will find himself as part of another playoff-bound roster during the 2026-27 season. Whether it's getting the Connor Bedard-led Chicago Blackhawks over the hump and into the playoffs or serving as one of the final pieces needed for the Philadelphia Flyers to become bona-fide playoff contenders, Schenn has recently served as a required component for teams that need to make an impact in the playoffs in some form.
As a result, it's possible to view the Sabres and Schenn's respective paths as diverging. Whereas Buffalo is at the beginning of a path that will take them towards long-term contention, the later stages of Schenn's career might very well see him move teams once again.
For the Sabres, it's best if they let that happen.