Terry Pegula purchased the Buffalo Sabres in February 2011. The NHL franchise hasn't participated in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since April 2011. The 14-year postseason drought is the longest such streak in league history.
It's hard to pin the blame on the organization's seemingly endless failures on anybody other than Pegula because the front office, coaching staff and roster have all witnessed plenty of turnover but the results still haven't significantly changed.
Adam Gretz of Bleacher Report named ownership as the Sabres' biggest problem on Wednesday, saying it "never matters" what else happens because of the issues atop the team's hierarchy.
"Terry Pegula's purchase of the Sabres is the direct line in the sand for where everything started to go wrong, and there has been no turning back," Gretz wrote. "The losing has been going on for a decade and a half."
He added: "This will continue to be the problem. It will always be the problem until something dramatically changes either in who owns the team or how ownership operates."
The criticism comes as Buffalo once again sits at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with 18 points (7-8-4 record) nearly a quarter of the way through the 2025-26 season.
All eyes will be on team owner Terry Pegula if the Buffalo Sabres miss the playoffs for a 15th straight year
Pegula has given no public indication he's even remotely interested in selling the Sabres, so any fans hoping for that type of outcome will likely remain disappointed.
Instead, the best Buffalo sports fans can probably hope for is the 74-year-old Pennsylvania native hiring a veteran front office executive — the Blue and Gold were recently linked to former Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan — and then taking on a more laissez-faire approach.
Pegula has remained far too patient with current general manager Kevyn Adams, who's in the sixth year of his tenure. That's probably directly related to Adams' willingness to keep the team's owner active in the team's day-to-day operations.
In addition, Pegula and Adams took the path of least resistance during the 2024 offseason when they brought Lindy Ruff back for a second stint behind the Sabres bench. Ruff is a franchise legend and a fan favorite in Western New York, but he's yet to prove he's still the right person for the job.
If the Sabres miss the playoffs again, it'll be time for wholesale organizational changes. The entire front office and coaching staff should be rebuilt from the ground up.
Whether it's Shanahan or a different executive, the focus should be finding someone with no direct ties to the franchise who can bring a set of much-needed fresh ideas.
The Sabres fanbase, which was once among the best in sports, has undoubtedly taken a serious hit over the past decade. Make no mistake, however, Buffalo still wants to care about its hockey team and will come back in a heartbeat if the Blue and Gold start winning consistently again.
Fourteen years of evidence suggests the only way that's going to happen is Pegula putting the right people in charge and then getting out of the way.
Sadly, whether that'll ever happen is a mystery.