It is finally September, and that means NHL hockey is right around the corner. Preseason, training camps, professional tryouts, and so much more loom over the NHL, and the Buffalo Sabres will be looking to maximize their time, effort, players, and prospects in that span before things kick off. After a subpar 2024-25 season, they have a lot to work on, and there are definitely some players that will be expected to carry some big loads as the season goes on. Some of the usual suspects will certainly be out to be big presences throughout the season, but there may be a few shockers here and there creeping up on them in the major stat categories.
Sabres’ Offensive Leaders
This team has some very lethal firepower on it. Some of it comes in the form of clear explosive offense in the likes of star forward Tage Thompson and captain Rasmus Dahlin, but there is some great potential sitting dormant and waiting to be released. Players like Jack Quinn, Josh Doan, Jiri Kulich, and Zach Benson have all shown flashes of what they can be, and if the Sabres are going to be successful, all of them will have to break out and have some incredible seasons.
Some bold predictions have already been made in regards to Quinn and Kulich, and if they come close to hitting them, they will be right in the conversation with Thompson and Dahlin as offensive leaders for the Sabres. Then, of course, there is Alex Tuch to be included in the conversation, as he has been one of their top offensive performers since he arrived in the Jack Eichel trade in 2021. With him included, there is some outstanding potential for a lot of pucks to go in the back of the net. The question is, can any of them dethrone Thompson for the goal scoring title on the team?
Sabres’ Defensive Leaders
The Sabres have their core grouping of Dahlin, Owen Power, Bowen Byram, and Mattias Samuelsson for their back end, but during this offseason, they added some great players in Conor Timmins and Michael Kesselring. While Timmins and Kesselring may not be offensive dynamos and keep up with the likes of Dahlin, Power, and Byram on the scoresheet, they offer great boosts on the physical and defensive sides of the ice, and they both have potential to be leaders there. Then, once again, there is the wild card, as a forward can be listed here in Tuch. With him being one of the best defensive forwards in the entire league in 2024-25, he too could challenge for some of the defensive categories.
Owen Power, Buffalo Sabres (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)
There is no question that Dahlin will lead in most, if not all of the scoring categories for defenders, but there is still a lot to be had from someone like Power. Is this the season where he finally gets his proper footing and plays more offensively? I think it is. Will he be going toe-to-toe with Dahlin in the scoring categories? Not likely, but he surely has the potential to be one of the better defensive players on their roster, especially if he gets paired up with the likes of Kesselring.
Sabres’ Goaltending Leaders
With how things played out last season, there is no guarantee that Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is the uncontested starter for this team, or that he retains a majority of the share of the starts in goal for them if the season goes on, and he still struggles. The Sabres brought in veteran backup Alex Lyon to shore up their goaltending, and they still have a rapidly developing Devon Levi, who will certainly try to push the pace and get to the NHL once he feels he is ready.
Don’t get me wrong, Luukkonen will likely begin the season as the starter and be given the opportunity to show that he improved over the summer, and can still be a reliable goalie. However, if he struggles a lot during the preseason and there are some standout performances from the likes of either Lyon or Levi, it would not surprise me to see either one of them get the nod to start the season and dethrone Luukkonen early. They do not have time to waste, and whichever goalie head coach Lindy Ruff feels will win them games, you can bet on him going with them between the pipes.
Sabres’ Stat Leader Predictions
With all of that having been said, between the young players gunning for big numbers, veteran stars doing their part, and the goalies not being fully set in stone, these are the predictions for the 2025-26 season’s major stat leaders.
Goals – Tage Thompson – 48
Assists – Rasmus Dahlin – 70
Points – Tage Thompson – 92
Shots – Tage Thompson – 277
Power-Play Goals – Tage Thompson/Jiri Kulich – 11
Power-Play Assists – Rasmus Dahlin – 20
Shorthanded goals – Alex Tuch – 6
Faceoff Percentage – Ryan McLeod – 53%
Hits Beck Malenstyn – 200
Takeaways – Alex Tuch – 50
Blocked Shots – Owen Power – 120
Plus/Minus – Alex Tuch – plus-25
Goals Against Average – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen – 2.88
Save Percentage – Alex Lyon – .909
Goalie Games Played – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen – 55
Wins – Ukko-Pekka Luukonen – 29
Shutouts – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen – 2
Some of these numbers jumped up from last season’s predictions, and others went down. As the Sabres navigate their season, they will ride the backs of their big core three in Thompson, Tuch, and Dahlin, but getting some outstanding work from their supporting cast will be what allows them to thrive. It will need to be a collective effort this season, and if it turns into a one-man show at any point, they will be doomed.
Related: Buffalo Sabres’ Top 10 Prospects for 2025-26
As far as the stats themselves are concerned, it will be a battle for goal supremacy as to whether any of the other forwards can challenge Thompson, and as for points, it will be a back-and-forth between Thompson and Dahlin as they try to outpace one another on different sides of the scoresheet. As for the defense, they have some strong defenders in Power and Kesselring, as well as some great supporting characters in the forward group to help defensively in Tuch, McLeod, and even Peyton Krebs and Jordan Greenway. Now, they just need it all to come together to make a season happen that the fans have been waiting nearly 15 years for.
