Michael Kesselring isn’t hiding from how his Buffalo stint went, but he also isn’t carrying bitterness out the door.
The defenseman said he believes he should have gotten a more complete chance to show what he could do during his one season with the Sabres, even if he accepts plenty of the responsibility for how it unfolded.
“I think most of it was on me," Kesselring told Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group ahead of Buffalo's visit to San Jose on Tuesday night. "You've got to be an adult, and I should have said I was hurting a little bit more than I (let on).
I should have mentally handled it better. Then I could feel I was running out of chances."
Kesselring landed in Western New York from the Utah Mammoth in the blockbuster JJ Peterka trade in June 2025. Buffalo had hoped the 6-foot-5 blueliner could grow into a long-term fit beside Owen Power on the second pair, but injuries kept getting in the way.
A high-ankle sprain was among the issues that bothered him, and the injuries seemed to dull the skating burst that made him such an intriguing addition for a defenseman his size. The two-way impact the Sabres were expecting never really took hold.
There was a point when the path looked clearer. Buffalo overhauled its blue line ahead of last season’s trade deadline, with the acquisition of Logan Stanley headlining the changes, and Kesselring thought that might finally open the door.
“Once they made the trades, I honestly thought me and Stanley were kind of going to play together. That's what I thought," Kesselring told Pashelka. "Then we played San Jose actually in (Buffalo), and I thought we played pretty well, and then I just didn't play."
That ended up being the story of his year. The 2018 sixth-round pick finished with zero goals and two assists in 34 games for Buffalo before the Sabres shuffled the defense again over the summer, losing Bowen Byram and adding Olen Zellweger and Louis Crevier.
Kesselring is with the Sharks now, and the change has brought a different kind of comfort. He has two assists in 12 games, and the chance to play regularly again has clearly mattered.
"I've been thinking about it in the last over the last week, and I can't even describe how much I just feel like myself again. Like, it's relieving," the defenseman explained to Pashelka.
Buffalo and San Jose are set to face off at 10:30 p.m. ET Tuesday night at SAP Center.
The Sabres’ piece from the Kesselring trade is already looking like a strong one.
With Buffalo reportedly linked to Ilia Morozov before the draft, the Sabres used the No. 20 pick they got in the deal to take the Miami (Ohio) center. The early returns have been loud: Morozov has scored five goals in Miami’s first six games of the 2026-27 season.
That production follows a freshman year in which the 18-year-old Russian posted 20 points - eight goals and 12 assists - in 36 appearances. He was the youngest player in college hockey last season, and his build stands out too at 6'3'', 204 pounds.
Morozov already looks like a player with a real chance to become a dependable middle-six center for Buffalo. He has shown he can handle himself defensively, and the offense is trending the right way.
“GOALL for Ilia Morozov!! #RiseUpRedHawks pic.twitter.com/CtmzowZluP”
- Miami Hockey (@MiamiOH_Hockey) October 23, 2026
If things keep moving in that direction, the Sabres could have him sign after the NCAA season and get a taste of pro hockey with the Rochester Americans. He may need a full year with the Amerks before he’s in the conversation for a full-time NHL role, though a strong season could speed things up.
At his best, Morozov projects as the kind of left-shot forward who can help Buffalo in every situation - at even strength, on the power play and on the penalty kill. That would be a far bigger return than Kesselring managed to provide in Buffalo, even if much of that was shaped by circumstances beyond his control.
In Other News...
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Ruffs reasoning was less about one line needing a fix than about the larger picture, with the coach looking to distribute offense more evenly across the lineup and get more from the group as a whole. It is a gamble with a line that had been working, but the Sabres are clearly weighing whether a deeper spread of production can make them tougher to defend over time. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Just Got Pulled Into A Dylan Larkin Situation That Feels Unlikely
Dylan Larkins trade watch has suddenly dragged Buffalo into the conversation, even though the Sabres are not among the teams on his current preferred list. The Detroit captain, who holds a full no-trade clause, has asked for a move and broadened his approved destinations to 10 clubs, a reminder of how carefully these situations have to be handled when a player of his stature is involved.
What makes this especially interesting for the Sabres is that Detroit is still believed to be waiting on a significant return, and Larkin remains in the lineup while the situation plays out. Buffalos interest gives the story another layer, since the Sabres would have to navigate around a player who has not given them the green light, turning what looked like a remote rumor into something worth monitoring closely. [Read more 🡒]
Konsta Helenius Is Running Out Of Time In Buffalo
Konsta Helenius arrived in Buffalo with the kind of developmental buzz that usually buys a young center a little patience, especially after he helped the Sabres in a brief but meaningful way during last years playoff push. This season, though, the runway has been shorter. Through 10 games, he has only two points, and his spot in the lineup has already been tested after a game as a healthy scratch.
For a player still trying to carve out a permanent role, the next step matters as much as the last one did. The Sabres are weighing how best to handle Helenius from here, balancing the need for NHL experience against the value of more seasoning with Rochester, and that decision now sits close enough to shape the rest of his season. [Read more 🡒]