You don’t often hear of regular season champions, as the ultimate goal for each team in the NHL, MLB, NFL, and NBA is to win their respective postseason championship. But in the NHL, the Presidents’ Trophy exists, and whichever team ends the season with the highest points total throughout the regular season attains the award.
No, it doesn’t count for a championship in the same way as the Stanley Cup, but to show consistency through an 82-game season is still something that should be recognized, and the Buffalo Sabres received that recognition in 2006-07.
That was a sensational year for the Sabres, as they had come off of a surprising 2005-06 campaign that saw them end up playing in the Eastern Conference Finals. In 2006-07, they didn’t just repeat, but the Blue and Gold ended the year with 113 points, winning a tiebreaker over the Detroit Red Wings (then in the Western Conference) as they earned three more wins than their future division rival.
Sabres have one Presidents’ Trophy and one near-miss
The Presidents’ Trophy dates back to the 1985-86 season when the Edmonton Oilers first won it. While the Sabres have just won the award once to date, there was one other instance when they came close to ending the season as “regular season champions.”
In 1989-90, the Sabres lost out by just three points to the Boston Bruins when they finished the season with 98 points to Boston’s 101. While they didn’t have a close call in their championship run back in 1998-99, the Sabres faced the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup Final that year and had a chance to upset the Presidents’ Trophy winners that, unfortunately, it didn’t happen.
Overall, the Sabres haven’t had a chance to lead the NHL in points often since the league introduced the award. But heading into the 2024-25 season, the Blue and Gold are just one of 18 teams to snag the prize for themselves, and that amounts to at least a regular season championship in their storied history.
(Historical data provided by Hockey-Reference)