Fifteen years ago, the Buffalo Sabres were unknowingly about to embark on the longest playoff drought in NHL history. The franchise was desperately trying to keep its head above water in the aftermath of the crushing departures of Chris Drury and Daniel Briere a handful of years earlier.
The Sabres front office, then led by general manager Darcy Regier, proceeded to make one of the biggest mistakes in franchise history: Signing free-agent winger Ville Leino to a six-year, $27 million contract, which was a significant commitment for the NHL in 2011.
Leino had just wrapped up a career-best season with the Philadelphia Flyers, tallying 53 points (19 goals and 34 assists) in 81 regular-season appearances. He also scored three goals in seven games to help Philly eliminate Buffalo from the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Perhaps recency bias played a role in the Sabres' decision to sign the Finnish winger, who'd recorded just 20 points in 68 contests across his first two NHL seasons before his Philadelphia breakthrough.
Calling Leino's tenure in Western New York a disaster may be an understatement.
The 6-foot-1 winger scored just 25 points in 71 outings during his first season in Buffalo and was then limited to just eight appearances in 2012-13 because of hip and lung injuries.
His stay with the Sabres, which was cut short by a contract buyout, ended on an ultimate low note as he failed to score a single goal in 58 games during the 2013-14 season.
The story didn't end there, though.
In 2017, Leino released a clothing design with the word "JAIL" prominently displayed on it, which he described as his feelings while playing for Buffalo in 2013.
It was one of the most enduring pieces of team lore during the Sabres' extended postseason absence.
Buffalo fans should keep the Ville Leino calamity in mind amid quiet Sabres offseason
Current Sabres GM Jarmo Kekalainen hasn't made a high-profile NHL addition this summer — he did secure the No. 4 overall pick in the 2026 draft to select defensive prospect Daxon Rudolph, but he's at least a year away from joining the Blue and Gold — and some supporters are getting restless.
Buffalo just skated in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2011, and there's a hope it can emerge as a legitimate championship contender in the years ahead.
Now there are questions about whether the Sabres may instead take a step back in 2026-27 following the departures of Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram with Olen Zellweger, Louis Crevier, Dennis Gilbert and Conor Sheary being the most notable arrivals.
Yet, sometimes it's important to take a step back and understand the landscape.
Asking prices this offseason, both for potential trades and free-agent signings, have been through the roof. Buyers are paying an extreme premium with teams willing to overspend to an extreme degree as the league enters a rising salary-cap world.
Those type of deals don't tend to age well, however, and Leino is a prime example. The Sabres paid him to become a bona fide top-six winger based off just one year of productivity, and they were then forced to buy out three seasons of his contract.
When other organizations are throwing money around recklessly, it's usually best to sit back and wait for the market to stabilize, which could happen as soon as the 2027 NHL trade deadline.
Meanwhile, Buffalo appears perfectly content to head into the new campaign with hope its large cache of emerging players — Zellweger, Crevier, Zach Benson, Josh Doan, Jack Quinn, Noah Ostlund, Jiri Kulich and Konsta Helenius — can replace Tuch and Byram in the aggregate.
Are there risks involved with that approach? Of course. An overreliance on young talent was a hallmark of certain stretches during the club's playoff drought.
That doesn't mean it's not the right course of action under the circumstances, and it's not like the Sabres haven't considered bigger moves. They were a finalist for Buffalo native Patrick Kane in free agency and have been heavily linked to a blockbuster trade for Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck.
Maybe something happens on the Hellebuyck front before training camp opens in September and there's your marquee summer addition for the Sabres. But even if something like that doesn't come to fruition, it's hard to argue with Kekalainen's measured approach to the offseason.
Buffalo has the young core necessary to emerge as a long-term threat in the Eastern Conference. Maintaining financial flexibility, either to re-sign its own players or go big-game hunting when acquisition costs are more reasonable, will pay off in the long run.
Waiting is the hardest part, though. That's especially true when the fanbase waited over a decade between postseason appearances.
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