The Buffalo Sabres finally turned a corner in December after traveling in the wrong direction for over a decade. Now the question is simple: What comes next?
Sure, in the short term the Sabres will make their long-awaited return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and, given the fact they've been perhaps the NHL's hottest team over the past four months, fans are dreaming big about a potential charge toward a championship this spring.
Sportsnet's Ryan Dixon, who ranked Buffalo at No. 3 in his latest NHL power rankings, believes the Sabres are not only built to do damage in this year's postseason, but also perfectly set up to emerge as a perennial contender in the seasons ahead.
"You can be a sophomore in college and have only vague recollections of playoff hockey in Buffalo," Dixon wrote. "You cannot overstate how huge this leap-forward season has been in Western New York. This team can do damage in the playoffs this year and, now that it's shaken the stink of a 14-year drought, it's reasonable to expect real contention from the Sabres year over year."
Going from a long-term laughingstock to "real contention" on an annual basis would be a monumental swing for the Blue and Gold, but it's a realistic projection based on the vastly improved current state of the long-suffering franchise.
The Sabres should be all-in on making sure this isn't a one-off playoff appearance.
Buffalo Sabres are built for sustained NHL success after memorable turnaround season
A lot factors are suddenly working in Buffalo's favor.
Most importantly, the roster's core pieces are mostly locked in to multiyear contracts with reasonable salaries, especially in the league's rising-cap environment.
Rasmus Dahlin (signed until 2032), Owen Power (2031), Tage Thompson (2030), Mattias Samuelsson (2030) and Josh Norris (2030) are all under contract into the next decade. The Sabres also re-signed rising star Josh Doan through 2032-33 earlier in the season.
The one cornerstone piece that's a near-term uncertainty is Alex Tuch, who's scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Both the Syracuse native, who grew up a Sabres fan, and the front office have expressed hope an extension can be reached, though.
Buffalo also has several prospects who are within a season or two of making the NHL leap. It's a group that includes Konsta Helenius, who's been tearing up the AHL in recent months, along with Radim Mrtka, Anton Wahlberg, Maxim Strbak and Devon Levi.
Other young players, like Brodie Ziemer, Adam Kleber and Luke Osburn, are a little farther away but remain on positive trajectories of their own.
That's important because the Sabres are going to require some low-cost contributors in the years ahead as more emerging contributors, led by Zach Benson, Noah Ostlund and Jiri Kulich, will begin to seek lucrative contracts of their own.
Being able to have a consistent stream of impact players moving through the minor leagues helps, and it definitely seems Buffalo has finally built a strong prospect pool after years of drafting early.
That's why there's no reason the Sabres shouldn't be staring down an extended run near the top of the NHL standings. Yes, it's going to require timely moves from general manager Jarmo Kekalainen to patch up holes that emerge, but the baseline assets are in place to remain a threat.
Of course, there are no guarantees. A 14-year playoff drought requires painful mismanagement, which Buffalo certainly experienced across several different regimes, and any NHL franchise is always a handful of bad moves away from returning to also-ran status.
Kekalainen is a battle-tested front office executive, however, and the Sabres should have a reasonable margin for error moving forward given their existing talent and the players in the pipeline. They could use one more high-scoring superstar up front, but otherwise there's ample organizational depth.
In other words, at long last there's legitimate reasons for meaningful optimism in Buffalo, and that's great news for one of North America's best hockey markets.