Buffalo Sabres leadership, led by general manager Kevyn Adams and head coach Lindy Ruff, knew some tough roster decisions were coming as key players returned from injury. How they've handled those calls is drawing some ire.
Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic wrote extensively about the Sabres in his always informational weekly 16 Stats column, and actually drew a position conclusion, saying "this year could actually be different" for a franchise riding a 14-year playoff drought.
The NHL analytics expert questioned a few of the recent moves by Adams and Ruff, though.
"While I have an unfortunate amount of undeserved belief in the Sabres, the team getting in its own way doesn't help," Luszczyszyn wrote. "Sending Isak Rosen (seven points in 10 games) down felt odd, but even more troubling is the team pairing their two worst defensive defenders in a top-four role."
The latter point is in reference to defensemen Bowen Byram and Conor Timmins.
"While they've been a little better of late during Buffalo's recent surge, Bowen Byram and Conor Timmins have played 173 minutes together at five-on-five, earning a 46.5 percent xG with a high number of goals against,' Luszczyszyn added. "Considering their sometimes-erratic playstyles, I'm inclined to believe that's not all bad luck."
For the Sabres, who have an extremely small margin for error after their roller-coaster start to the 2025-26 season, those type of issues can cause serious problems.
Buffalo Sabres rely on the path of least resistance far too often when making key roster moves
Sending Rosen down is the latest example of the Sabres doing something simply because it represented the easiest route available. The 22-year-old winger, who brought a much-needed scoring spark when the lineup was banged up, could be returned to the AHL's Rochester Americans without having to clear waivers.
Did the Sweden warrant a long stay in Buffalo? Absolutely, especially since he's been tearing up the AHL to the tune of 16 points in 11 games, but returning him to the Amerks allowed Adams to move forward without having to make a difficult decision.
Rosen, who was sent to Rochester to open the campaign, previously talked about wanting to show "Buffalo was wrong" for that demotion.
The Sabres' defensive situation is a little tougher to manage for Ruff and his staff because unexpectedly terrific season being produced by Mattias Samuelsson.
He was a target of frequent criticism coming into the campaign, but he's emerged as the Blue and Gold's most steady blueliner by adding a healthy dose of offense (he already has a career-high five goals) to go along with getting back on track defensively.
Moving Samuelsson up to the top pair with captain Rasmus Dahlin coupled with the absence of Michael Kesselring has left Buffalo with two lackluster pairs: Byram-Timmins and Owen Power-Jacob Bryson.
The lack of defensive acumen among those four defensemen, besides Timmins who's provided a nice boost to the club's penalty kill this season, is a problem with no easy solution.
Moving Power back to Timmins' pair could work — the duo has a 51.2 expected goals for percentage (xGF%) in 5-on-5 situations, per Natural Stat Trick — but a Byram-Bryson tandem would likely be an unmitigated disaster in their own zone.
Getting Kesselring, who's started skating on his own but didn't travel with the Sabres for their six-game road trip, back will help, but there's still no clear timetable for his return.
Meanwhile, Buffalo sits 15th in the Eastern Conference with 26 points (11-12-4 record). That's four points behind third place in the Atlantic Division and five points back of the final wild card spot.
That puts the Sabres behind the eight ball already, so every roster or lineup decision that's ineffective will be magnified for the foreseeable future.