The Buffalo Sabres have taken up residency in the bottom third of the NHL power rankings for the vast majority of the past 14 years, which is the length of their active playoff drought. The story remains much the same as training camp begins ahead of the 2025-26 season.
Lyle Fitzsimmons of Bleacher Report ranked the Sabres 26th out of the league's 32 teams in his camp power rankings on Thursday.
"Any optimism in Western New York as the schedule approaches will likely hinge on improved goaltending from last season, when the Sabres were tied for 29th with a 3.50 goals against average," Fitzsimmons wrote. "It won't help, then, that Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is working through a lower-body injury and is labeled day-to-day as camp begins."
The low ranking further illustrates how nobody is going to give Buffalo any benefit of the doubt until it starts winning games consistently again.
Buffalo Sabres face major climb up the NHL standings and power rankings in 2025-26
The Sabres missed the playoffs by 12 points last season. As if that's not troubling enough, their season was essentially over before Christmas because of a 13-game losing streak that would have taken a miracle run to recover from.
Any Buffalo sports fans hoping the latest failed campaign would lead to a massive organizational overhaul were left hugely disappointed.
The Sabres didn't make any significant changes to the front office or the coaching staff, and the roster moves were of the modest variety.
They acquired winger Josh Doan and defenseman Michael Kesselring from the Utah Mammoth in exchange for JJ Peterka. Although losing a high-scoring forward like Peterka comes with risk, both Doan and Kesselring should play important roles for Buffalo this season.
Beyond that, however, the additions were extraordinarily minor: Justin Danforth, Conor Timmins, Zac Jones, Alex Lyon and Alexandar Georgiev.
In turn, the Sabres will need to lead heavily on internal improvement if they're going to make a serious playoff push in the months ahead. Players like Owen Power, Zach Benson and Jiri Kulich must take the next step to become game-changing players.
It's possible, and several analytics preseason projections have Buffalo as a legitimate contender in the postseason chase, but the margin for error is small. As Fitzsimmons mentioned, how the goaltending group led by UPL performs will be crucial.
All told, how the Sabres perform during an early home-heavy portion of their schedule will tell an important tale about their true outlook for the 2025-26 campaign.