The Buffalo Sabres have lived through the consequences of a bad bet before, and Ville Leino remains the cautionary tale that still hangs over the franchise.
Back in 2011, Buffalo was trying to steady itself after the departures of Chris Drury and Daniel Briere. General manager Darcy Regier made a major swing, handing Leino a six-year, $27 million deal after the winger had just posted a career year with the Philadelphia Flyers. Leino finished that season with 53 points, including 19 goals and 34 assists, in 81 regular-season games, then added three goals in seven playoff contests against Buffalo.
At the time, the move looked like a gamble on a player who had finally broken through. Leino had managed only 20 points in 68 games over his first two NHL seasons before that Philadelphia surge. In Buffalo, though, the deal went off the rails fast.
Leino produced just 25 points in 71 games in his first Sabres season. Hip and lung injuries limited him to eight appearances in 2012-13, and the relationship ended with a buyout. His final season in Buffalo was especially bleak: no goals in 58 games during 2013-14.
The story took an even stranger turn in 2017, when Leino released a clothing design with the word "JAIL" prominently displayed on it, which he described as his feelings while playing for Buffalo in 2013.
That history matters now because the Sabres are again in a summer where patience is the plan, and some fans are growing uneasy. Current GM Jarmo Kekalainen has not made a major NHL addition this offseason. He did land the No. 4 overall pick in the 2026 draft to select defensive prospect Daxon Rudolph, but Rudolph is at least a year away from joining the Blue and Gold.
Buffalo has just returned to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2011, and there’s real hope the club can build toward contender status. Still, there are questions about whether the roster could take a step back in 2026-27 after the departures of Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram, with Olen Zellweger, Louis Crevier, Dennis Gilbert and Conor Sheary among the notable arrivals.
The market is part of the reason the Sabres have stayed quiet. Asking prices for trades and free agents have climbed sharply, with teams paying a steep premium as the league moves into a rising salary-cap era.
Those kinds of deals can look reckless in a hurry, and Leino is the perfect example of why caution matters. Buffalo paid for top-six production based on one big season, then had to buy out three years of the contract.
That’s why standing pat can make sense, even if it doesn’t satisfy everyone in the moment. The Sabres seem comfortable leaning on a wave of young players - Zellweger, Crevier, Zach Benson, Josh Doan, Jack Quinn, Noah Ostlund, Jiri Kulich and Konsta Helenius - to help offset the losses of Tuch and Byram.
There is risk in that route. Buffalo’s playoff-drought years were filled with stretches that leaned too heavily on youth.
But the organization has also shown it is willing to chase bigger names when the opportunity is right. The Sabres were a finalist for Buffalo native Patrick Kane in free agency and have been heavily linked to a blockbuster trade for Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck.
Maybe that Hellebuyck pursuit turns into the marquee move before training camp opens in September. If it doesn’t, Kekalainen’s restrained approach still has a case. The Sabres have a young core that could become a long-term force in the Eastern Conference, and keeping flexibility now could matter later, whether that means re-signing their own players or making a bigger swing when the price drops.
For a fan base that waited more than a decade between playoff appearances, though, waiting is never easy.
In Other News...
Three Sabres Suddenly Carry Huge Pressure To Prove Last Year Was Real
With Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram no longer in the mix, the Sabres are heading into camp with a little less margin for error and a lot more attention on the players who can help replace what those departures leave behind. Mattias Samuelsson, Jack Quinn and Josh Doan all come out of last season with legitimate momentum, and Buffalo needs those gains to look real again if it is going to push back toward the playoff race.
Samuelssons jump in production, Quinns emergence as a top-nine option and Doans growing role give the roster some needed upside, but they also raise the bar for what comes next. The Sabres do not just need those seasons to be remembered as a nice stretch, they need them to become the new standard, especially with the lineup thinner than it was a year ago and the pressure to prove last season was no fluke hanging over a key part of the forward group. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres May Finally Be Circling The Top Six Scorer Fans Want
Kirill Marchenko has quietly become one of the more intriguing names in the summer trade market, and Buffalo is at least being mentioned as a possible fit if Columbus decides to move him. The Blue Jackets winger has given teams plenty to think about after a strong season and a productive two-year stretch, and for a Sabres club still looking to add more scoring punch, that kind of player naturally lands on the radar.
The wrinkle is timing, because the chatter around Marchenko has not settled into anything concrete yet. Buffalo can keep monitoring the situation while sorting through its own forward group, and if the market does shift later in the summer, the Sabres look like the sort of team that could jump in when the price and the fit line up. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Single Game Tickets Are Here And Fans Will Feel It
The first chance to see the Sabres at home this season comes Oct. 3 against the Chicago Blackhawks, and single-game tickets are already on sale with even the cheapest seats carrying a hefty price tag. For fans eyeing the home opener, the market is reflecting more than just a date on the calendar - it is also showing the buzz around a team coming off a playoff run and the added pull of marquee home dates.
VIPTix president and CEO Nick Giammusso said the opener and holiday games are drawing the highest prices because demand is strongest for those nights, while the rest of the schedule should be more fluid as the season gets closer. For anyone not locked in on being there from the start, there is at least a chance the numbers soften later, once the market has time to settle. [Read more 🡒]