The Buffalo Sabres won’t get the same version of the Toronto Maple Leafs they saw last season, and that alone changes the tenor of this matchup.
Last year, Buffalo handled Toronto with ease and didn’t lose to the Leafs in regulation. By the time the teams met for their final showdown in mid-March, Toronto was already a wreck.
This season looks different. The Maple Leafs have reworked the roster in ways that could make them a far more dangerous opponent for Buffalo.
The biggest swing comes in goal. Toronto GM John Chayka made the move to Bobrovsky, and while he’s coming off a sub-par season with the Panthers and is now 38 years old, the upside is obvious if he steadies the position. If the Leafs’ defense gets the expected boost from Chris Tanev’s return, Bobrovsky could end up giving Toronto better goaltending than the Sabres have.
There’s more firepower, too. Rookie McKenna has flashed his top-end talent in limited pre-season action, and Toronto could get a major lift if he clicks on a second line with John Tavares and William Nylander.
That kind of trio has the potential to change the whole look of the Leafs’ attack. The additions of Sissons, Duhaime, Blueger and Paul also give Toronto a level of depth it simply didn’t have a year ago.
Then there’s Raddysh, whose sign-and-trade gives the Leafs a true offense-driving defenseman for the first time since Morgan Rielly’s peak years. Toronto is betting that Raddysh’s huge 2025-26 season wasn’t just a one-off, and that’s part of the larger theme with Chayka’s offseason work: high risk, high reward.
For Buffalo, that means the schedule could get tricky in a hurry. The Sabres and Leafs meet October 15 in Toronto, then don’t play again until February 27 in Buffalo.
After that, they’ll face off March 25 in Buffalo and April 3 in Toronto. The late-season stretch is the one to watch, because those final two games come with plenty on the line.
Toronto could be fighting for a wild card spot. Buffalo could be in the same boat.
The Leafs could even push past the Sabres in the Atlantic standings, or Buffalo could keep Toronto out of the playoffs for a second straight season. However it shakes out, these games figure to matter.
The bottom line is simple: the Maple Leafs should be a much tougher out for the Sabres this year. Buffalo should still have a shot to take at least two of the four meetings, but anything beyond that will require a strong effort from the Sabres.
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Logan Stanleys stint in Buffalo turned out to be a meaningful one in a season the Sabres badly needed one. Acquired from Winnipeg during the 2025-26 trade deadline, the big defenseman settled into a role on the blue line and became part of the group that pushed Buffalo back to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years, a breakthrough that mattered as much for the room as it did on the ice.
Now Stanley has a new landing spot for the next chapter, with the Islanders bringing him in on a one-year contract for the 2026-27 season. He is expected to arrive without having played any preseason games for New York, leaving the early part of his next stop to be about quickly finding his footing and showing where he fits on a defense that is still taking shape. [Read more 🡒]
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Sabres Suddenly Have One Big Opening Night Question
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Among the injury updates, Olen Zellweger remains in concussion protocol, Mattias Samuelsson is week-to-week with a lower-body injury, Jason Zucker is recovering from a sports hernia, Alex Lyon is dealing with a shoulder issue and Jiri Kulich is managing a nagging injury. The most relevant question for opening night is in goal, where the situation around Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is still unsettled after he left the Penguins game with a lower-body issue, leaving the Sabres with at least one major lineup decision still hanging over the start of the season. [Read more 🡒]