Despite their best efforts, the Buffalo Sabres ended up missing out on the postseason yet again in their 2023-24 campaign, as their league-leading playoff drought continued. General manager Kevyn Adams and the front office opted to relieve head coach Don Granato of duty after yet another failing. The future definitely hangs in the balance for a squad and organization with a plethora of young talent, but is often hampered by poor decision making and what some perceive to be meddling in their affairs by the Pegula family. How did Adams and the rest of his staff attempt to take steps forward out of the purgatory they have been in for a long time this summer? Let us take a look.

The Sabres opted to replace Granato by having a coaching reunion with Lindy Ruff, who compiled a record of 571-432-78-84 W-L-T-OTL over 1,165 games between 1997 and 2013, capturing two division titles, a Presidents’ Trophy, and one Eastern Conference championship prior to his termination during the truncated 2012-13 season. I understand this from a couple of angles, namely that Ruff’s systems make sense for the roster that they have and that, if the team is stuck middling, it’ll be more palatable with an established, liked figure. However, the team is still attempting to use what they have to become competitive and develop its youth contingent into a Stanley Cup winning squad for the first time in franchise history. From this angle, this is the second coaching reunion they’ve had in the last 11 years after running it back with Ted Nolan (Ruff’s immediate predecessor who coached Buffalo in the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons) after Ron Rolston’s short stint as Ruff’s initial replacement. This didn’t work the first time, nor did it work the two times that the Canadiens attempted it with both Michel Therrien and Claude Julien, so why should this be any different? A similarly styled coach with a different voice that was fresh to the organization would’ve made more sense. To make matters even worse, someone who I would’ve loved to see be a voice for that mentality in Buffalo, even if just as an assistant, in the form of Marc Savard (who was a terrific offensive head coach in the OHL with a gigantic playbook and had success with the St. Louis Blues and was perhaps limited by the system in Calgary) was allowed to reunite with Craig Berube in Toronto, inside Buffalo’s division. The Sabres left a lot on the table here by adhering to the retread mentality that is far too prevalent in the NHL.

The Sabres made two trades of note in the summer, first dealing a second round pick in this year’s draft to Washington in exchange for LW Beck Malenstyn, who was subsequently signed to a two-year, $2.7M deal. This was a big price tag for a guy whose addition, even as a depth forward, doesn’t move the needle a lot or add all that much utility. As Adam Herman of Bleacher Report pointed out, Malenstyn has spent considerable time in the AHL as of late, and isn’t much of a producer in the NHL even as far as bottom-sixers go. While adding future options is pretty much irrelevant to the Sabres at this point with their already impressive prospect pool, it doesn’t help the squad much even in the present tense, and the fact that the Capitals added an elite blueliner to their future options by drafting Cole Hutson with that pick makes Washington look like very likely overwhelming winners of this deal.

Additionally, however, there was the trade with the Edmonton Oilers wherein premium prospect C/W Matthew Savoie was surrendered in exchange for C Ryan McLeod and minor league RW Tyler Tullio. In a vacuum, this looks like an overwhelming win for Edmonton, with them acquiring a big bolster to its barren prospect pool and perhaps even someone who can extend their competitive window down the line, with Savoie’s accomplishments in the WHL and CSSHL already well-documented at a pretty low cost. That said, as Josh Wegman of The Score pointed out, the Sabres are picking up someone that has good shutdown ability to add to the bottom six with some decent offensive upside as demonstrated by his Evolving Hockey card. Where I differ from Wegman, however, is that the price was too steep. I think I agree with a take I’ve seen from some Sabres fans that declares that Savoie became somewhat expendable due to Zach Benson’s already superior NHL readiness while being not only from the class after Savoie’s, but being a younger member of the 2023 class than Savoie was of 2022. The Sabres not only made an immediate add that could help their postseason aspirations, but declares a firm direction for their future with regards to which prospects/youngsters will be the ones that they build around.

Rewarding his campaign in which he posted some impressive marks despite the team’s overall weakness (27-22-4, 2.57 GAA, .910 SV%, 5 SO), the Sabres inked 30-year-old G Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to a five-year deal at a $4.5M AAV, with a M-NTC in the final three years. Based off of his peak/trajectory and the potential of Devon Levi, the team may just be validated by committing to them as the tandem of the future. G James Reimer was picked up on a one-year deal for veteran depth at the position. He has had his ups-and-downs and has even be something of an anchor at times in his career as we have discussed at length in this brand, but I do agree with Tristin McKinstry’s assessment in the previous link that they are at least showing some gusto with this acquisition in contrast with the low intensity signing they made for that purpose last time around. Beyond this, other free agent acquisitions included G Felix Sandstrom, RW Nicolas Aube-Kubel, RW Sam Lafferty, LW Jason Zucker, C Josh Dunne, D Dennis Gilbert, and D Jack Rathbone. In what was probably in the best interest of both parties, LW Jeff Skinner was bought out and signed with Edmonton, while other departures came via free agency in the forms of LW Brandon Biro, G Eric Comrie, F Zemgus Girgensons, and C/LW Tyson Jost. Beyond UPL, other retained players included LW Brett Murray and D Henri Jokiharju. Draft selection C Konsta Helenius was signed to his ELC on July 8th. More on him momentarily.

The 2024 NHL Entry Draft saw the Sabres do quite well yet again in getting a high quality selection/arguable slide in round one. With one of the smartest players in the 2024 class still on the board, they opted to take him, taking the aforementioned Helenius at 14th overall. Helenius being emphasized as a cerebral tactician, playmaker, and two-way forward on his EliteProspects profile is a completely accurate assessment of him. He is effectively Sebastian Aho (of the Carolina variety), mk II: His physical attributes aren’t his biggest selling point. It’s the fact that he possesses every kind of hockey IQ that you could possibly ask for, while supplementing that absurd processing ability with a tremendous work rate and a motor that goes two ways. Using this, he has registered 47 points over the course of 88 regular season games while playing in Liiga on loan with Jukurit from Tappara over the last two seasons, including 36 points in 51 games in his DY. This is a really impressive mark for a teenager playing in Finland’s top pro league. Helenius is about as NHL ready as anyone in this class and I expect him to be at least comfortable pretty quickly. In round two at 42nd overall, as noted by Chris Peters, the Sabres picked up a valuable asset that helps plug an organizational hole in a big RHD with a booming shot. Adam Kleber was ranked 33rd in FloHockey’s rankings and served as a strong presence from the point with the USHL’s Lincoln Stars this past season. The UMD Bulldogs are getting a strong piece that has good skating ability in addition to those strong physicals that teams covet. The last pick of Buffalo’s that fell within the top 100 was US NTDP (committed to University of Minnesota) RW Brodie Ziemer. He racked up 70 points in 61 games for the Development Program last season, using his strong shooting ability to great success but exhibiting pinpoint passing accuracy, as well. There are a lot of dimensions to his offensive game and he should be fun to track. The Sabres’ lower end selections had pretty good value, as well (among them D Luke Osburn of the Youngstown Phantoms and G Ryerson Leenders of the Mississauga/Brampton Steelheads), but their first three rounds were good enough to call their weekend in Vegas a success.

Ultimately, while I am fairly satisfied with the Sabres’ efforts to end their playoff drought while also maintaining stability for the future, I cannot completely smile upon them. I have no doubts in my mind that the coaching reunion they have opted to carry out is going to turn at least some of their weapons into blunt instruments (to borrow/slightly alter an analogy used by Christian). I also just was not fond of every transaction that the front office made and I’m not entirely sure that the roster depth is all the way there yet. I may be weighing the coaching a hire a bit too heavily considering the things that they got right this summer, but it just serves as such an obstruction to both their present and future plans that it kind of has to be weighted differently. As such, I’m going to give the Sabres a C- for this summer. For whatever else there may be that is headed in the right direction, there is a gigantic inhibitor staring them right in the face due to their own lack of ambition. The only way to right the course will be to identify the mistake and pivot away from it before it does too much damage to this organization’s long-term aspirations.