Buffalo Sabres 2025-26 Season Preview | The Steve Dangle Podcast

Buffalo Sabres 2025-26 Season Preview | The Steve Dangle Podcast

The Buffalo Sabres, uh, they have a good team and it continues to be a bad team, which is so interesting. Wouldn’t that make it a bad team? Well, you would think, but they got talent on the team. Now, Bet MGM has them improving on their 79 points last year. Buffalo played all 82 games, even if you didn’t watch them. Uh, 79 points in 82 games. Bet MGM has them at 84 and a half, which is a five-point improvement. Um, and Steve, that’s quite the face you’re putting on there, Steve. Uh, if I’d given my mother that face, she’d tell me to fix it. What? Where do you have them? Are you over or are you under? And by the way, the better odds are under. Let me look at the Buffalo Sabres in the eyes. Not Sabers fans, cuz they’re more mad than I am. You’re so annoying for these exercises. You’re so annoying because you are on paper Mhm. Way too good to be ending up where you are. Yes. Why do you stink? You’re so annoying. Uh what was the overunder? Uh 84 and a half. Smart money is under cuz it’s the Sabres. Jesse, where do you have them? Over or under? Yeah, 84 and a half would put them right in line with like sixth through eighth in the division if you go under. So if you think it’s an over, you pro you probably have them like five and higher. Like in the playoffs, I’ll go not in the playoffs. Like that’d be still out of the playoffs, but like they could hit 90. They could 91. I I’ll go under. Most teams most teams, you look at the names on the paper. Look at that crest. Under. Yeah. Yeah, I’ll go under. Uh I’m also going to say under. And the Buffalo Sabres have talent and they have an expensive roster. We talked about this on our main podcast. Alex Tuck could go 910 million here, too. They’ve only got 5 million in actual cap dollars. Um, you’ve got UPPL at 475, you’ve got Dollian at 11, Owen Power at 835, Bowen Bram, who will probably get traded at 625, Josh Norris at 79, TA Thompson at 71, Mloud at five, Zucker at 4, 75. Like, this is a team like I’m I’m I’m giving you names and you’re like, those are good names. Why does this not come together? What is going on in Buffalo that they can’t pull this thing together? coaching culture. Can’t keep the puck out. Can’t keep the puck out. Scored a shitload. And who’ they lose? One of their best goal scorers. JJ Purka. Yeah. Like, okay, here’s their their their path forward is if Michael Kessler comes in and is an incredible addition for their back end. You know, we we we have talked earlier. Uh some teams found improvements in their D from like strange places. Like why was that what tied the room together? It was uh Ker in Montreal. It was Borggan with the Rangers. What if it’s Kessle Ring for the Sabres? Could be. But UPPL by the end of last season was brutal. And Levi is a guy they have finally decided, what if we just stop ruining him and just let him do his thing. The back end is such a massive question mark for me. Like the thought exercise when we did the Capitals preview is I was like, “Well, they’re the same team, so I have them first. They look nearly identical. They’re first.” What do the Sabres do? They’re identical. Like other than the persa trade. Well, yeah. And they downgraded it forward. They right unless if but Steve, even if that’s the case, Kessle Ring is not going to there’s no replacement for those points. Well, Josh Don is he’s all of a sudden going to score 30. We’d be happy for him if he did, but I don’t think that’s what’s happen. I think Josh Don’s a really good player, and same with Kessle Ring, but uh like is that enough to resurrect what this team has been? And here’s the other question I have. They made that big trade with Ottawa last year, Dylan Cousins for Josh Norris. And Josh Norris has significant injury history. It’s deck chairs. And also, I don’t think they won. I I think I think Cousins was great for Ottawa in the playoffs last year. Yeah. I like So that that part for me, I’m looking at this, I’m like, okay, they had Tae, you got Josh Norris, and I’m like, Jason Zucker’s like a half a point a game guy. Tuck could put 30. He could tuck 35. Uh, but you know, Jack Quinn, you need a new You need more out of him. Can Can I be an even bigger jerk? Looking at their offense from last season, which was exemplary. How many of those games were against backup goalies? You’re Buffalo. That’s a fair question. You’re getting the backup. You’re Buffalo. They lit the Leafs up against their third stringer and lost, by the way. It’s Buffalo. Everything is graded on a curve. Wow. You’re really not You’re really not hot on the Sabres. You think you think I’m not hot on the Sabres? Wait till you talk to Sabres fans. Jesse, let’s talk positive first. Okay, what a waste of time. Jesse, if you were to jump in and you are Terry Pagula’s right-hand man now. Oh, man. Hey, so uh can we hand Kevin Adams a pink slip? Uh well, no, Kevin Adams would be gone already. Oh, yeah. Um you are now the president and GM of the What What What are the bright spots on this roster for you? Steve was right in that this team can put the p puck in the back of the net, especially at five on five. Like they finished 10th in the league in goals, four per game. Yeah, they were they were good. They were solid at putting the puck in the back of the net. Their power play struggled. I believe it was 24th in the league. So, you see like when you get down to, hey, when kind of star players rise in the power play and they kind of execute and you have those X factors, they don’t really get it done. But the five on five you can hang. Especially with the way they play where it’s a lot of back and forth because their defense struggles and that’s where you get down to it where their defense struggles and they’re third worst in goals against per game. So they’re just allowing everything but they’re getting their cookies because they’re chasing the score a lot and when they are doing that they can put puck in the back in that. So like for me I don’t think they have a solid defensive group that can hang right now with the playoff teams. Like I think you need to reconstruct this roster in a way where you’re supporting these young talents with some veteran pieces on the back end that are established. And I don’t know how you change that in Buffalo when they’ve been losing for so long and you need the winning culture to bring in players who will be useful for this team. Because if you just have Dalene and Power back there and you’re asking them to be like, “Hey, take this franchise to the next step.” They’ve never done it before and they clearly have shown that they can’t do it on their own. So, there’s so many question marks and it’s a conundrum on what to do with this team. I think if you’re Kevin Adams, uh, you’ve got to look at a team that surprisingly struggles, right? You have assets. You can trade. And so, if you want to bring those types of players in, Jesse, I think you make a really good point there. Who’s the team that becomes the Nashville of 25 26, right? Nashville came out of the gate. They struggled. They were bad. They started selling pieces. You saw Thomas, you saw Kerier, you saw Dante Fabro, you saw Tommy Novak, right? Um, and I look at what, you know, let’s say, and again, I’m I don’t actually know, but let’s say Tampa struggles. Sure. Can you make a deal there to grab, you know, um, Mcdana? You know what I mean? Something like that. That’s the type of deal that they got to be looking for from a team that is surprising. And those players would be important cuz you look at their opening night roster. We don’t obviously don’t know what it’s going to be, but if it looks like how it’s going to be, they have two defenseman on their opening night roster that are above the age of 25. And those two guys are 27year-old Connor Timonss and 27year-old Jacob Bryson. That’s the peak of their age curve on their decor. And I’m and I just look at that and it’s been doing that for a number of years. You’re asking young talent that hasn’t done it at this level and every Timonss was a fringe guy with the Leafs and then a fringe guy with the Pens like and he’s going to be playing regular mints. Good for him. Got his money. That’s fantastic. We always root for Connor Timonss personally. Ah man, that’s a big so much from Byum and Power and Dollene and Samuelson. It’s just very young. It’s not mature and there needs to be some winning before you can win. Some winning attitude, some winning players in there. You’ve picked so many guys in recent years and picked so high. And a lot of the draft nerds and prospect experts have your prospect pool as one of the best, if not the best. Maybe start using some picks. Yeah. To solve your problems because you can’t just And their their first round picks a lot more valuable than like a Leaf’s first round pick. Yeah, man. and and like in you know protect it. Don’t be an idiot and and everything, but you got to drafting is so important for rebuilding your team, but as the Sabres have proved, it’s not everything. Like you got to surround the team. Yeah. Is it ridiculous to ask the Sabres to buy and also like get ending, but like I’d like to see them really push this thing and acquire some higherend talent or at least just like solid NHLers. You had the first overall pick with Dalene. You couldn’t have done better with that pick. Unbelievable. Where are you? Right where you found it. You know what’s cool? They could like, let’s say a team like Calgary struggles out of the gate. Kadre’s name’s been out there. Screw it. Do it. You know what I mean? Like you need to bring in character. You need to bring in guys with some some some what are they? Jam. You need to bring in people that are that have an attitude that are culture setters. That sort of thing. That is how you get around this. And I think you’re right. I think we’ve all arrived at the same conclusion. Time to start trading assets. Kevin, let’s go. Let’s go get some wrestle ring is cool, but it’s just another 25-year-old young defenseman that you’re like, “Oh, he’s going to develop into a guy.” Here, here’s an idea. The next time Logan Thompson Logan Thompson uh Ta Thompson gets clocked, uh, drop your gloves. Oh, no kidding. You can’t have him in the summer doing interviews going, “I was surprised nobody stuck up for me.” You can’t do that. That’s a disaster. And that is a culture thing because it the exact same thing happened with Ryan Miller. And then the next time you play Boston, you have you have to feed poor Paul Gostad to Milan Luchi. Oh my god. Here you go, Milan. Here you go. Open wide. Ah, and he just took his beating and went about his day. That’s quite the pull. Okay, guys. Where do you have them finishing in the division? Their talent is too good for this, but eighth. Jesse, seven. I also have them at seven. That’s your Buffalo Sabres season preview.

Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde and Jesse Blake preview the 2025 Buffalo Sabres season. Do they have any chance at making the playoffs?

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