Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) – The Buffalo Sabres have made another addition to their hockey operations department this offseason, hiring longtime NHL executive John Davidson as a senior advisor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am excited to join the Buffalo Sabres and look forward to the opportunity to help the organization in any way I can,\u201d said Davidson in a team statement on Monday. \u201cThe momentum in Buffalo is palpable throughout the entire league and the passion from Sabres fans makes this opportunity all the more exciting. I look forward to continuing the relationships with many in the Sabres\u2019 front office and building new ones in this role, all with the goal of contributing to a winning culture.”<\/p>\n
For 20 years, Davidson has served in a number of top executive roles in the NHL. This includes stints as president of hockey operations with the St. Louis Blues (2006-12), Columbus Blue Jackets (2012-19, 2021-24) and president of the New York Rangers (2019-21).<\/p>\n
The 73-year-old recently served as a senior advisor of the Blue Jackets during the 2024-25 season after bringing in Don Waddell as general manager and president of hockey operations in 2024.<\/p>\n
Davidson has a very close working relationship with Sabres general manager Jarmo Kekalainen. The two worked together both in St. Louis and Columbus, where Davidson hired Kekalainen as the first European-born general manager in the NHL in February of 2013. Davidson also replaced Kekalainen as interim general manager of the Blue Jackets when he fired him in February of 2024.<\/p>\n
“I am thrilled to welcome John Davidson to the Sabres as a senior advisor,\u201d Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen said. \u201cJohn and I have a strong working relationship that we have developed over many years. His experience leading multiple organizations, combined with his player evaluation skills and relationships around the NHL make him a great fit for this role. He will lend his expertise and guidance to all areas within the hockey department as we aim to continue to improve our club.” <\/p>\n
Davidson has been around the NHL for several years as a player, broadcaster and executive.<\/p>\n
The goalie was a first-round pick of the Blues in the 1973 NHL Draft, and played a total of 10 years with St. Louis and the Rangers.<\/p>\n
After his playing days, Davidson became a very well-respected broadcaster with the Rangers, and was eventually inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009 after receiving the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) – The Buffalo Sabres have made another addition to their hockey operations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[60627,3644,5180,967,229,897,230,5179,5,8255,4,60626],"class_list":["post-622135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-all-local","tag-blue-jackets","tag-bluejackets","tag-breaking-news","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-columbus","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-columbusbluejackets","tag-hockey","tag-john-davidson","tag-nhl","tag-wgr"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116916655482296782","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}