The Buffalo Sabres are heading into a season where the margin for error is a little thinner. After ending their playoff drought and getting to the second round, they now have to chase that same level without Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram. That puts a brighter spotlight on the players who already delivered career years last season.
Three names stand out: Mattias Samuelsson, Jack Quinn and Josh Doan. Each of them gave Buffalo a major lift a year ago, and each now carries the pressure of doing it again.
Mattias Samuelsson was one of the biggest surprises on the roster. Not long ago, he was being floated as a buyout candidate after not living up to his seven-year, $30 million contract. Instead, he flipped the script completely and turned into a top-pair defenseman.
Samuelsson logged a career-high 22:50 in average ice time and backed it up with real production. He finished with 13 goals and 28 assists, a massive jump from the seven career goals and 36 career assists he had in 212 regular-season games before that. With Olen Zellweger stepping in as the direct replacement for Bowen Byram, Buffalo still needs the rest of its blue line to carry more weight, and Samuelsson can’t afford to slide backward.
Jack Quinn also hit a major milestone at the right time. He scored 20 goals for the first time and cleared the 50-point mark. In the playoffs, he stayed productive with seven points in 13 games, and that total might have been even higher if not for some brutal luck with posts.
His name has come up often in trade chatter this offseason, and the Sabres could still move him. But if he’s on the roster when the season starts, he should be locked into a Top 9 role and expected to produce again.
There’s more than team pressure here, too. Quinn will be a restricted free agent after the season, so another year like the one he just had could set him up for a bigger contract.
Josh Doan is in a different spot. He already signed a seven-year deal in January during his first season in Buffalo, one of the first moves Jarmo Kekalainen made after being named general manager.
So the contract pressure isn’t there. The expectation is.
Doan had 12 goals and 16 assists in 62 games over two seasons with the Utah Mammoth franchise before being traded last offseason. In Buffalo, he exploded for 25 goals and 27 assists, including nine power-play goals.
As camp opens, the coaching staff is expected to keep all options open when building the lines, but Doan will likely land on the first or second line. If the Sabres are looking for someone to fill Alex Tuch’s role, Doan is the most obvious candidate.
Buffalo wants back in the playoffs, and doing it without Tuch and Byram makes the path tougher. If Samuelsson, Quinn and Doan can stack another career season on top of the one they just had, the Sabres will like where they stand.
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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 🡒]