Buffalo Sabres player grades 2025-26: Full season report cards and game ratings

Sabre Noise will provide Buffalo Sabres player grades for every game during the 2025-26 NHL season. Here you'll find season-long ratings and links to each review.
Buffalo Sabres superstar Tage Thompson
Buffalo Sabres superstar Tage Thompson | Joe Hrycych/GettyImages

The Buffalo Sabres, led by franchise pillars Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, will aim to remain competitive in the Eastern Conference throughout the 2025-26 season with the ultimate goal of ending the organization's NHL-record 14-year playoff drought.

Thompson and Dahlin are joined by a unique blend of established talents (Alex Tuch and Jason Zucker), rising stars (Zach Benson and Josh Doan) and players who are under pressure to take their games to the next level (Owen Power and Josh Norris).

The question is whether those key cornerstones can help the team overcome several key question marks, led by goaltending uncertainty and special-teams concerns, in order to finally turn a corner in the Blue and Gold's longtime rebuilding project.

After each Sabres game, we'll handle out grades (on a 1-10 scale) to every player who took the ice and use those to provide updated full-season ratings throughout Buffalo's 2025-26 campaign.

Sabre Noise hub for Buffalo Sabres player grades for the 2025-26 NHL season

Sabres player rankings based on average game grade

Player

Games Played

Average Grade

Colten Ellis

1

8.5

Josh Doan

11

7.3

Alex Lyon

9

7.2

Zach Benson

8

6.4

Alex Tuch

11

6.4

Tage Thompson

11

6.0

Jordan Greenway

1

6.0

Michael Kesselring

2

5.8

Rasmus Dahlin

11

5.6

Josh Norris

1

5.5

Mattias Samuelsson

9

5.5

Ryan McLeod

11

5.5

Tyson Kozak

7

5.4

Bowen Byram

11

5.4

Conor Timmins

11

5.3

Owen Power

10

5.3

Josh Dunne

5

5.1

Jiri Kulich

11

5.0

Jack Quinn

11

4.9

Peyton Krebs

11

4.3

Ryan Johnson

3

4.3

Noah Ostlund

4

4.3

Zach Metsa

4

4.3

Jason Zucker

11

4.2

Jacob Bryson

5

4.0

Beck Malenstyn

10

3.7

Justin Danforth

4

2.8

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

1

1.5

Mason Geertsen

4

1.4

Links to all Buffalo game reviews and player ratings

Game 11: Bruins 4, Sabres 3 (Oct. 30, 2025)

Buffalo Sabres leader praises team's new mentality: 'There's no fear'

Game 10: Blue Jackets 4, Sabres 3 (Oct. 28, 2025)

Lindy Ruff slams Buffalo Sabres' latest slow start: 'Unacceptable'

Game 9: Maple Leafs 4, Sabres 3 (Oct. 25, 2025)

Does Buffalo Sabres' Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen have any NHL trade value?

Game 8: Sabres 5, Maple Leafs 3 (Oct. 24, 2025)

Alex Tuch comes alive for the Buffalo Sabres after recent criticism

Game 7: Sabres 4, Red Wings 2 (Oct. 22, 2025)

Sabres' Colten Ellis took awesome rookie lap then proved he belongs in the NHL

Game 6: Canadiens 4, Sabres 2 (Oct. 20, 2025)

Former 7th round pick emerging as a draft steal for the Buffalo Sabres

Game 5: Sabres 3, Panthers 0 (Oct. 18, 2025)

Sorry, UPL: Alex Lyon is the Buffalo Sabres' starting goalie now

Game 4: Sabres 8, Senators 4 (Oct. 15, 2025)

The Next Big Thing? Josh Doan is already turning heads for the Buffalo Sabres

Game 3: Avalanche 3, Sabres 1 (Oct. 13, 2025)

Invisible players are sinking the Buffalo Sabres after Colorado Avalanche loss

Game 2: Bruins, 3, Sabres 1 (Oct. 11, 2025)

Alex Lyon has been the Buffalo Sabres' best player (and that's embarrassing)

Game 1: Rangers 4, Sabres 0 (Oct. 9, 2025)

Rasmus Dahlin earns high marks in Sabres player grades after Rangers loss

How the grading system works

Our grades will be entirely subjective based on each Sabre Noise writer's view of the game. This isn't an analytics-based system that reviews the numbers and spits out a final score. These player ratings will instead lean more heavily on the eye test.

Of course, that doesn't mean the statistics will be ignored. Both baseline stats (goals, assists and so on) and underlying metrics like expected goals for percentage (xGF%) will always be considered, but those elements are often noisy when being viewed through a single-game lens.

Sequencing matters, too. A player who scores a third-period hat trick in a 4-3 comeback win deserves more credit than one who scores a third-period hat trick in an 8-3 blowout loss when the result was decided far before his first puck hit the back on the net.

Hopefully by the end of the 82-game schedule the grades will help paint a picture about which players most consistently helped the Sabres win games. They'll also be used next offseason as we explore areas of the roster Buffalo's front office must improve before the 2026-27 campaign.

And yes, if the Sabres finally bring playoff hockey back to Western New York, we'll carry the player grades into the postseason, as well.

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