The Buffalo Sabres and Stanley Cup can finally be used in the same sentence again after more than a decade of misery for Western New York hockey fans. The organization still has work to do before reaching that ultimate goal becomes a realistic outcome, though.

Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic named the Sabres as one of the NHL’s “dark horses” for next season, and discussed the biggest missing piece for the reigning Atlantic Division champions.

“What the Sabres need most is a forward who can push Tage Thompson down into a more appropriate fit as a top sidekick,” Luszczyszyn wrote Tuesday. “It’s high-end talent up front that’s the biggest separator between Buffalo and the teams above.”

That jibes with our outlook on Buffalo’s offseason all along.

The single biggest difference-maker the Sabres could acquire this summer is a bona fide No. 1 NHL center. Someone like Robert Thomas (St. Louis Blues) or Dylan Larkin (Detroit Red Wings) would instantly push the Blue and Gold into the league’s elite. If they’re unattainable, making a bet on a bounce-back season from Elias Pettersson (Vancouver Canucks) is a worthwhile risk.

Thompson is a tremendous player but he’s most valuable while operating as an offense-first winger. That’s the role head coach Lindy Ruff has always preferred for the 28-year-old Olympic gold medalist, but absences from Josh Norris and Jiri Kulich forced him to remain at center for most of 2025-26.

The 6-foot-6 offensive dynamo has scored 198 goals over the last five years, which ranks eighth among all NHL players. His faceoff and defensive deficiencies tend to create problems for Buffalo when he’s forced to play center on a full-time basis, though.

Trading for a player like Thomas, Larkin or Pettersson — there are no free-agent centermen capable of filling that top-line role on a true contender, so a trade is required to land one — would allow the Sabres’ forward lines to fit together much better moving forward.

It wouldn’t be a cheap endeavor, of course. The Sabres would likely have to part with one of their current centers (probably Norris for financial reasons), a top-tier prospect (Radim Mrtka), another young player (Kulich or Noah Ostlund) and a future first-round draft pick.

That said, here’s how the lines could look if they pulled off such a move, using Thomas as an example:

Left Wing

Center

Right Wing

Zach Benson

Robert Thomas

Tage Thompson

Jiri Kulich

Konsta Helenius

Josh Doan

Jason Zucker

Ryan McLeod

Jack Quinn

Peyton Krebs

Sam Carrick

Beck Malenstyn

Add in a defense corps led by Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Mattias Samuelsson, and perhaps even another trade for Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck, and you certainly have a baseline roster capable of making a serious championship push starting in 2026-27.

Whether that type of blockbuster trade will be available over the next few months is uncertain, but there’s little doubt filling that hole in the lineup is the biggest item on Buffalo’s to-do list.

Buffalo Sabres need to clear out overabundance of forwards before the 2026-27 NHL season

The Sabres have 14 forwards under contract for next season, and that number will likely rise to 15 once an agreement is reached with restricted free agent Peyton Krebs, who received a qualifying offer from the franchise on Monday night.

Buffalo’s front office, led by general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, has already signaled it’s likely to carry three goaltenders again. That leaves a baseline active roster of 13 forwards, seven defensemen and a trio of netminders.

So, there’s the issue: 15 forwards for 13 spots.

Sure, the Sabres could send Justin Danforth and Tyson Kozak through waivers, but that doesn’t solve the entire problem because they’ll still have one too many middle-six forwards. That’s where the subtraction needs to happen, with Danforth staying with the big club as the 13th forward.

Using the lineup above, which would include Norris and Ostlund if there’s no blockbuster trade for a first-line center, someone from the group of Ostlund, Kulich or Jason Zucker would be penciled into a fourth-line role, which just isn’t a good fit.

That’s why it feels like more moves must be coming for Kekalainen. They need a deal (or two) where they can sacrifice a little depth for a singular talent. Ideally, that’s the No. 1 center, but a more realistic result is probably a top-six winger and/or Hellebuyck.

At minimum, if the trade market runs dry, it feels like the Sabres will probably send Zucker, an unrestricted free agent next summer, to another contender just to clear out the middle-six logjam on the wings.

Kekalainen has already had a busy offseason, headlined by trading Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram after it became clear neither cornerstone was going to sign a long-term extension in Buffalo.

His job is far from done if the Sabres are going to reach that Cup contender category, though.

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