The Buffalo Sabres may be closer to the NHL’s scoring summit than the numbers suggest.
Last season, Buffalo piled up 283 goals, good for fifth in the league. That total sat just one behind the Edmonton Oilers and only three back of the Tampa Bay Lightning, while the Colorado Avalanche led the way with 298.
The gap looks big at first glance, but it shrinks when you consider Buffalo already jumped by 18 goals from the year before. Even after losing Alex Tuch and his 33 goals this offseason, the Sabres have a path to making up ground if the offense keeps climbing.
What makes the case even more interesting is how top-heavy scoring was around the league. Buffalo finished fifth in team goals but had only two players ranked inside the NHL’s top 70 goal scorers last season. That speaks to the depth of the attack, and it’s a big reason the Sabres were such a difficult group to defend.
The next step, though, has to come on the power play.
Buffalo scored 48 power-play goals last season, which was the second-fewest among the league’s top five scoring teams. The issue wasn’t just volume - the Sabres drew the ninth-most penalties in the NHL with 246 opportunities, but they converted at just 19.51%, which ranked 20th.
They got chances. They just didn’t cash in enough.
Tage Thompson is the obvious place to start. He put up 30 power-play goals across the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, then had 22 over the past three years combined. After scoring six power-play goals last season, a jump to double digits would go a long way toward tightening the gap.
Josh Doan could also help. He finished second on the team with nine goals in his first NHL season while getting extended time on the man advantage, and adding three or more goals to that total is hardly a stretch.
But the biggest swing might come from Konsta Helenius and Jiri Kulich. Both are basically fresh faces in the mix this year, and both have already shown they can work the power play in Rochester. Helenius led the Americans with nine power-play goals last season, while Kulich had seven in his last full season there in 2023-24.
That matters because Buffalo had only three players with at least seven power-play goals last season. If Helenius and Kulich translate that AHL production quickly, the Sabres’ special teams could take a real step forward. And if that happens, Buffalo has a legitimate shot to finish the year at the top of the NHL in goals.
In Other News...
Sabres Still Have One Obvious Scoring Target To Consider
Buffalos search for offense has a familiar feel to it, with the front office looking for ways to make up for the production that walked out the door after the departures of Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram. If the Sabres want a scorer who can help right away and still fit a longer window, the market could eventually include a player whose recent production and age make him a logical name to monitor.
The Calgary forward drawing attention fits that kind of profile, coming off a career-best goal total and sitting on a team that is still reshaping its roster for the future. The Flames have reason to listen if they decide to keep leaning into a rebuild, but for now the situation remains one to watch rather than a finished deal, which leaves Buffalo waiting to see whether the price and timing ever line up. [Read more 🡒]