The Buffalo Sabres are set to embark on a crucial turning-point season. Can they take another massive step toward bringing the franchise's first championship to Western New York, or will they fade after the high-profile offseason departures of Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram?
Although they've received some harsh grades for their muted summer, at least when it comes to marquee additions, there's still a lot of believers in the Blue and Gold.
For example, The Athletic released its annual preseason predictions poll on Tuesday. The Sabres received 20.7% of the votes as the NHL's dark horse Stanley Cup contender for 2026-27 and one voter, Mark Lazerus, picked Buffalo to raise Lord Stanley in June, albeit with a caveat.
"It's me, the one guy who picked Buffalo," Lazerus wrote. "Because Connor Hellebuyck will be the Conn Smythe winner. (Insert dramatic musical sting here.)"
In addition, 96.6% of The Athletic ballots featured the Sabres making the playoffs — that's well above the analytical projections, which mostly show the club as a coin flip to make the postseason — and 58.6% of respondents predicted the team will eventually trade for Hellebuyck.
As for the outlet's NHL Awards forecasts, Rasmus Dahlin finished third in Norris Trophy voting (10.3%) and Lindy Ruff was tied for seventh for the Jack Adams Award (3.4%).
If there were a couple surprises, they were Tage Thompson not getting any votes for the Rocket Richard Trophy and Konsta Helenius not garnering any selections for the Calder Trophy.
Nevertheless, the results show the Sabres have finally garnered some respect around North America after shedding their long-term laughingstock status last season.
Now the pressure is on to make sure they back up those results when puck drops on the new campaign Thursday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson face immense pressure for Sabres early in new NHL season
The Sabres are facing quite a bit of uncertainty ahead of their season opener.
They already have three players who were expected to serve as a full-time members of their lineup on injured reserve to open the campaign (Jason Zucker, Mattias Samuelsson and Conor Timmins), and two of their goalies are also banged up after the preseason (Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Alex Lyon).
Then there's the questions about whether general manager Jarmo Kekalainen did enough to replace the lost production from Tuch and Byram.
Buffalo did add Olen Zellweger and Louis Crevier on the blue line, and its hopeful prized prospects Daxon Rudolph and Radim Mrtka will be ready within the next few years to fill the defensive void in a more comprehensive way.
That said, Byram was a crucial contributor in all three phases and there's little doubt his absence will be felt, especially with Samuelsson and Timmins sidelined.
When it comes to the forwards, the Sabres are making a serious bet on internal improvement. Namely, the club is expecting Zach Benson, Josh Doan, Peyton Krebs, Jack Quinn, Jiri Kulich, Noah Ostlund and Konsta Helenius to all make meaningful strides in 2026-27.
Yes, there's a lot of talent within that group, but development is rarely linear. It's unlikely all seven of those players make clear progress this season. Some may stagnate and others could deal with injuries, as was the case for Kulich last year.
So, what does that mean? Buffalo's cornerstones, Dahlin and Thompson, will be leaned on to pick up the slack while everybody else finds their comfort zone.
Dahlin finished third in the Norris race last season behind winner Zach Werenski of the Blue Jackets and runner-up Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche. He posted a career-high 74 points (19 goals and 55 assists) in 77 games, and will be looking to top a point-per-game pace for the first time.
Thompson reached the 40-goal plateau for the third time in four years in 2025-26, and he was the Sabres' most dependable player in the playoffs with 15 points in 13 postseason contests. Any offensive drop off without Tuch will fall on his shoulders, at least initially.
There are always stretches throughout a season where top teams have to depend more on their stars to carry the load, whether it's due to injuries or just a period of bad play. For the Sabres, that may be true right out of the gate beginning Thursday night.
Dahlin and Thompson must be up to the challenge if Buffalo is going to avoid falling into an early hole like it did last season before going on one of the best runs in NHL history.
Add us as a preferred source on Google