The Buffalo Sabres may feel good about the young talent they already have in the building, but that confidence didn’t show up in a new ranking of the NHL’s best young cores.
On Tuesday, Sportsnet’s Sonny Sachdeva released his top five groups of current NHL players age 25 and under, and Buffalo wasn’t among them. The list went Montreal Canadiens, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers. Even the honorable mentions passed on the Sabres, with the Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild getting those nods instead.
That’s a notable miss for a team that could have as many as 10 U25 players on its Opening Night roster against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 1.
The forward group alone includes Zach Benson (21 years old), Josh Doan (24), Jack Quinn (23), Peyton Krebs (25), Noah Ostlund (22), Jiri Kulich (22) and Konsta Helenius (20). Colten Ellis, 25, is also in the mix as the goalie.
There’s even a chance Radim Mrtka, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, gets meaningful NHL minutes before the 2026-27 season wraps up.
And the Sabres’ age profile doesn’t stop there. Rasmus Dahlin (26), Tage Thompson (28), Josh Norris (27), Ryan McLeod (26), Mattias Samuelsson (26) and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (27) all sit just beyond the cutoff, which only makes Buffalo’s overall collection of young and still-developing talent look deeper than the ranking suggests.
Even without those names, it’s not hard to make the case that Buffalo belongs somewhere near the top eight in this conversation. The Sabres may not have the single headliner that some of the other teams boast - the kind of player who instantly jumps off the page like Lane Hutson or Macklin Celebrini - but the depth is real. There’s also still a path for Power to live up to his No. 1 pick billing if the Byram trade opens up more offensive runway for him.
At the same time, the omission is another reminder that Buffalo still has something to prove before the rest of the league fully buys in. That’s true even after the franchise finally ended its 14-year postseason drought and reached the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The bigger question now is what the Sabres look like when the puck drops again. A major move could still come before the season, with a blockbuster trade for Blue Jackets winger Kirill Marchenko or Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck floated as possibilities. But there’s also a real chance the current roster is the one that shows up to training camp.
If that’s the case, Jarmo Kekalainen is betting on internal growth to carry a heavy load. Replacing Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram won’t be simple; they brought a mix of responsibilities that won’t be duplicated overnight by one player, or even by several.
That uncertainty matters even more in a brutal Atlantic Division and across a strong Eastern Conference. Buffalo is not a sure thing to return to the playoffs.
Still, a step back isn’t written in stone either. There’s plenty to like about leaning on players such as Benson, Doan, Power and the rest of that young group, especially with trade and free-agent prices soaring this summer. The rising salary cap has pushed rival teams, particularly the ones under pressure to win immediately, into expensive additions.
Kekalainen has taken a more patient route. Buffalo still has $5.1 million in cap space, according to PuckPedia, if an opportunity opens up now or closer to the 2027 NHL trade deadline.
In the end, the only standings that matter are the ones in mid-April. If the Sabres stumble and miss the playoffs for the 15th time in 16 years, the quiet offseason will almost certainly come back under the microscope. But in the bigger picture, Buffalo’s group of players age 28 and under still gives the franchise a real base to build on, and a chance to keep that window open if the East loosens up in the years ahead.
For now, though, the short-term view is a little less clear.
In Other News...
Three Sabres Are Running Out Of Time To Prove It
The Sabres have spent the offseason looking at more than just additions and subtractions. They are also staring at a group of returning players whose next step could shape whether this season feels like progress or another reset. Ryan McLeod, Jack Quinn and Mattias Samuelsson all fit that category in different ways, with each carrying a different kind of pressure after last years uneven team performance and the departures around them.
McLeod needs to show he can be more than a depth piece when the games matter most, Quinn is being asked to help absorb some of the offense that walked out the door, and Samuelsson has to prove his expanded role was not a one-season spike. Add in the uncertainty around Jiri Kulich and Josh Norris, and the Sabres are entering camp with more questions than clean answers, even before a puck is dropped. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Linked To Veteran Camp Option For A Troubling Need
The Sabres are still looking for ways to firm up a forward group that could use more stability, and one possible camp solution is a veteran on an unrestricted free agent track who has spent the past season bouncing between Ottawa and Detroit. The appeal is straightforward: a player with recent NHL mileage, enough offensive touch to keep a depth role honest, and the kind of experience that can help a team trying to round out its roster before opening night.
For Buffalo, the question is less about splash and more about fit. A professional tryout agreement would give the club a low-risk look at whether he can supply bottom-six depth and steady leadership, especially for a younger locker room that could use another seasoned voice. The Sabres do not have to decide anything immediately, but the possibility is there if they want one more veteran option in camp. [Read more 🡒]