Late June and early July have the same pattern on the NHL calendar: There’s the draft, then free agency and trades and it’s wrapped up by development camp.
At that point, the GMs are all heading for their cottages for some R&R and things tend to get quiet for a few weeks. That’s where we are now.
Sabres fans wringing their hands and social media feeds about another top-six forward should be reminded that Carolina’s Martin Necas, the Philadelphia duo of Joel Farabee and Travis Konecny, Columbus’ Patrik Laine, Anaheim’s Trevor Zegras and Winnipeg’s Nikolaj Ehlers haven’t been traded yet.
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Buffalo's Tage Thompson skates up ice against the Florida Panthers on Feb. 15. The Sabres will play host to the defending Stanley Cup champions twice in October this season.
The same applies to disgruntled Jets former first-rounder Rutger McGroarty, who has been rumored to be on the radar of the Sabres and Montreal but has made a trade difficult because of demands for usage and playing time. McGroarty has played two years at Michigan and not a second of pro hockey. Winnipeg media outlets have reported about those demands, and the kid and his camp need to knock it off if they want to get moved.
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Maybe all of this happens later in the summer. Maybe these guys stay put. We’ll see. But with the break in the transaction wire setting in the last few days, it finally gave this corner some time to give a good onceover to the 2024-25 NHL schedule that was unveiled during development camp.
McLeod went from one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup in 2025 to a franchise with one of the longest active postseason droughts in North American professional sports. “A little bit of a whirlwind. You really don’t know what’s going on or anything. I think it’s a great opportunity. They have a great group there and it seems like a great group of guys. I’m excited to get down there and meet everyone,” he said of joining the Sabres.
We’ve known for a few months the Sabres are starting in Prague with games against New Jersey on Oct. 3-4. Here are some other things I noticed about the schedule:
1. Lots of multigame runs, home and away: The Sabres have eight road trips of at least three games next season − and that’s the most in franchise history, according to the team pages of Hockey-Reference.com. They have four runs with four straight road games, although two of them likely will have a trip back to Buffalo after the first contest before jetting to far-off locales for the remaining games.
Conversely, the club has six runs of at least three straight home games. It’s a bit of a departure from previous years, when the Sabres often would leave town for just one game. But maybe all the team bonding on the road is a good thing; the Sabres are tied for 14th in the NHL in road points percentage over the last two seasons (.573) but are 27th at home (.494).
2. Division matchups: Until proven otherwise, let’s assume Florida, Boston, Toronto and Tampa Bay are Atlantic Division playoff teams and the Sabres are again fighting Detroit and Ottawa for one wild-card spot. Remember that you play five of your seven division opponents four times and two of them just three times, so now let’s compare.
The Red Wings and Senators meet defending Stanley Cup champion Florida only three times while the Sabres get the Panthers for four, including twice at home in October. The Sabres get Tampa Bay, the weakest-looking playoff club, just once at home while the Sens and Wings have the Lightning twice at home. Buffalo has Toronto and Tampa for three games while Ottawa’s three-gamers are Florida and Toronto and Detroit’s are Florida and Boston.
(Aside: Toronto should never play Buffalo, Ottawa or Montreal only three times in a season. The NHL should have some protected division rivalries but it doesn’t, and it leads to last year’s situation where the Rangers and Islanders went more than a year between games before playing in the Stadium Series. And the Sabres’ lone trip to Toronto this year is for a 5 p.m. Sunday game on Dec. 15, the same day as a Bills-Detroit game).
Bottom line: The Atlantic Division schedule did the Sabres no favors in 2024-25.
The Buffalo Sabres’ roster is almost set for the season opener in Czechia on Oct. 4, but we will find out in the coming weeks if General Manager Kevyn Adams can pull off the big splash that fans wanted.
3. Less Metro Division Madness: The Sabres are 0-8-2 in their last 10 trips to Carolina but only have to go to PNC Arena once this season (Feb. 27). They are 1-3-1 in their last five trips to New Jersey but don’t go there at all this year because their lone “road” game against the Devils is in Czechia. So that means no return game for Lindy Ruff in Newark this season.
4. Love the home opener: It’s Oct. 10 against Los Angeles, which means Ruff’s return to Buffalo won’t be overrun by visiting fans cheering for opponents such as the Leafs, Habs, Bruins, Rangers and Penguins. It’s the first Buffalo opener against a Western Conference team since 2000 against Chicago.
5. No easy path to a fast start: We heard players at locker cleanout day, newcomers on recent video calls and Ruff all talk about how a quick jump from the gate is a key to this season. The Sabres were 20-7-3 in their three previous Octobers until last year’s 4-5 slog. They are just 16-32-7 in the last four Novembers, which has been the real problem.
This October is no fun, with two home games against the Panthers and visits by Dallas and Detroit in addition to the Kings. Better do well on that mid-month road trip to Pittsburgh, Columbus and Chicago. November has a softer run of games at home but the road trips will be challenging (Rangers, Islanders, Detroit, Philly and the three California teams).
New homes for Panthers
Winning the Stanley Cup usually means instant changes as players head into free agency and the Florida Panthers are no different. Already gone from the Game 7 lineup against Edmonton are defensemen Brandon Montour (Seattle) and Oliver Ekman-Larsson (Toronto), forwards Vladimir Tarasenko (Detroit), Kevin Stenlund (Utah) and Ryan Lomberg (Calgary), and backup goalie Anthony Stolarz (Toronto).
And while former Sabres captain Kyle Okposo has yet to announce a decision, there’s a good chance he retires. That would thus mean seven of the 20 players in uniform for the Cup clincher will no longer be on the club.
Celebrini gives Sharks bite
How did No. 1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini look at Sharks’ development camp last week? Todd Marchant, the Williamsville native and longtime NHLer who is San Jose’s director of player development, was effusive in his praise when speaking to Sharks reporters.
A seminal month in Macklin Celebrini's hockey life kicked off the last few days in Buffalo. It will reach a crescendo on June 28 in Las Vegas when the San Jose Sharks are virtually certain to make the Boston University center the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft and their new franchise building block.
“He’s given a buzz back to the San Jose Sharks organization,” Marchant said. “The last couple of years have been tough, but he’s given that [feeling] there’s light at the end of the tunnel, and it is starting to open up.”
Marchant said one thing that stood out to him was how Celebrini wanted to be a leader among the prospects.
“The first day after breakfast, they go outside for a little activation warmup, he’s leading his group. Right away, he’s first in line,” Marchant said. “Then you see him on the ice, he’s first in the drills. Those things you don’t teach. I can’t go to a player and say, ‘Hey, you should be first in line.’ They just instinctively have that.”
Farewell, CapFriendly
CapFriendly.com, the go-to site on salary information and a host of other areas regarding NHL contracts, officially went offline Wednesday after its purchase by the Washington Capitals last month, as the team has hired the site’s creators and turned it into a proprietary space.
Fans looking for NHL salary information now should be heading to PuckPedia.com, which is quickly getting up to speed with its interface and features. One recommendation: More bandwidth, boys. The site crashed pretty regularly on July 1 during the free agency frenzy.
The Caps, meanwhile, are considered a scourge among fans, media and other NHL teams for making the site all their own. Of course, it may not help their decision-making.
Trading with Los Angeles for enigmatic center Pierre-Luc Dubois − and taking on his $8.5 million cap hit through 2031 − rates as a deeply dubious decision by outgoing general manager Brian MacLellan, who kept his president of hockey title last week and gave up the GM reins to assistant Chris Patrick.
The Sabres are undoubtedly still looking for a second-line left winger to replace Jeff Skinner in their top six, but Zucker signed a one-year deal for $5 million and might get a chance alongside Dylan Cozens if GM Kevyn Adams can't unearth anybody else.
Comings and goings
- The Islanders re-signed forward Tyce Thompson, brother of Sabres center Tage Thompson, to a one-year, two-way deal. Tyce Thompson had three goals and 11 assists last season for Bridgeport in the AHL.
- Red Deer defenseman Mats Lindgren, the fourth-round choice of the Sabres in 2022 who went unsigned, has agreed to an AHL deal with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the Penguins organization.
- Former Canisius University forward Keaton Mastrodonato, the leading scorer on the Griffs’ 2023 NCAA Tournament team, has signed an AHL deal with the Colorado Eagles and joined former Canisius goalie Jack Barczewski in the Avalanche organization. Mastrodonato, whose deal was reported by Inside AHL Hockey, had 24 goals and 18 assists last season in 48 games for the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads and had four goals in 19 games for the AHL’s Texas Stars.
- Former Niagara defenseman Chris Harpur has re-signed an AHL deal with the Syracuse Crunch. He had four assists in 17 games for the Tampa Bay affiliate last season and had an assist while making two appearances in the first-round playoff victory over Rochester. Harpur has spent most of the last three seasons at Orlando of the ECHL after playing 161 games over five years for Niagara from 2017-22.
- Sawyer Boulton, the 19-year-old son of former Sabres tough guy Eric Boulton, signed a two-year AHL contract with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the Philadelphia organization. Born in Amherst, Sawyer Boulton had six goals, four assists and 112 penalty minutes in 50 games last season between the Rochester Jr. Americans and the OHL’s London Knights.