Following Thursday&#8217;s huge <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/oilers-get-back-at-canucks-with-6-2-spanking-in-testy-rematch">6-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks</a>, the Edmonton Oilers will continue their homestand on Saturday afternoon when they host the Buffalo Sabres.

1. The Sabres hold the NHL&#8217;s longest playoff drought at 13 seasons and there are no signs of it ending soon.
Buffalo owns an 18-25-5 record, putting them on pace for 70 points. That would be a significant drop from the 84 points they put up as a middling team with a 39-37-6 record last season. It would even be worse than the 35-36-11 they put up during Jack Eichel&#8217;s rookie season in 2015-16.
2. The Sabres selected in the top 10 of the NHL Draft for ten consecutive seasons between 2012-13 and 2022-23.
Four of those players are still with the organization: Rasmus Dahlin (first overall in 2018), Dylan Cozens (seventh overall in 2019), Jack Quinn (eighth overall in 2020), and Owen Power (first overall in 2021).
Six of them were traded: Rasmus Ristolainen (eighth overall in 2013), Sam Reinhart (second overall in 2014), Jack Eichel (first overall in 2015), Alex Nylander (eighth overall in 2016), Casey Mittelstadt (eighth overall in 2017), and Matthew Savoie (ninth overall in 2022).
Ristolainen and Reinhart were traded following a disastrous 2021 season in which the Sabres went 15-34-7 in the shortened campaign. Ristolainen has developed into a strong two-way defender with the Philadelphia Flyers and Reinhart has blossomed into one of the league&#8217;s best scorers with the Florida Panthers.
Eichel requested a trade from Buffalo after that 2021 season and was moved to the Vegas Golden Knights. Part of the move was because the Sabres wouldn&#8217;t allow Eichel to <a href="https://www.nbcsports.com/nhl/news/jack-eichel-leads-the-way-in-nhl-for-disk-replacement-surgeries">have a certain surgery done</a> and the Golden Knights were fine letting him do it his own way. He won the Stanley Cup in his second season in Vegas.
Nylander was moved a couple of years after being drafted to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for defenceman Henri Jokiharju. Mittelstadt was dealt at last season&#8217;s trade deadline to the Colorado Avalanche and Buffalo got back a promising young defenceman, Bowen Byram, in the trade. Savoie was traded to the Oilers in the off-season with Ryan McLeod and prospect Tyler Tullio going back the other way.
The verdict is still out when it comes to many of those players mentioned but that isn&#8217;t a very good haul for ten consecutive years of top-ten draft picks.
3. It&#8217;s difficult to say where the Sabres go from here. They&#8217;re at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings after a decade&#8217;s worth of top draft picks and they&#8217;ve already made a handful of major financial investments.
Buffalo has four players (Tage Thompson, Cozens, Dahlin, and Power) locked up for multiple years with a combined <a href="https://puckpedia.com/team/buffalo-sabres">cap hit</a> of $33 million and they have three more players making over $4 million each who are signed into next season.
Given the way things are going, a name like Dylan Cozens or Owen Power could be the next top-ten draft pick out the door in Buffalo.
4. Leading the way for the Sabres offensively is Thompson, who has 22 goals and 40 points in 43 games. Veterans Jason Zucker and Alex Tuch have 16 and 15 goals and Dahlin has chipped in 34 points from the blueline.
Among the disappointments for the Sabres this season have been Power and Cozens, who are both in the early stages of big contracts. Cozens signed a seven-year, $49.7 million deal in February of 2023 and has only 23 points in 48 games this season. Power signed a seven-year, $58.45 million extension in October of 2023 and has 24 points in 48 games along with a minus-11 rating in the first year of the deal.
Another contract that doesn&#8217;t look good for Buffalo right now is Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The Sabres figured he was their goaltender of the future and signed him to a five-year, $23.75 million contract in the summer. The 25-year-old has a .897 save percentage in 2024-25, putting his career average at .902 through 135 NHL games.
5. The Oilers should beat the Sabres not only because they&#8217;re a lottery team, but because they&#8217;re at the tail end of a four-game road trip through the Pacific Division.
Buffalo lost 6-4 to the Seattle Kraken on Monday and then they beat the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday by a score of 3-2. They were dropped 5-2 against the Calgary Flames on Thursday and they&#8217;ll wrap this trip up in Edmonton on Saturday afternoon.

Following Thursday's huge <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/oilers-get-back-at-canucks-with-6-2-spanking-in-testy-rematch">6-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks</a>, the Edmonton Oilers will continue their homestand on Saturday afternoon when they host the Buffalo Sabres.



1. The Sabres hold the NHL's longest playoff drought at 13 seasons and there are no signs of it ending soon.

Buffalo owns an 18-25-5 record, putting them on pace for 70 points. That would be a significant drop from the 84 points they put up as a middling team with a 39-37-6 record last season. It would even be worse than the 35-36-11 they put up during Jack Eichel's rookie season in 2015-16.

2. The Sabres selected in the top 10 of the NHL Draft for ten consecutive seasons between 2012-13 and 2022-23.

Four of those players are still with the organization: Rasmus Dahlin (first overall in 2018), Dylan Cozens (seventh overall in 2019), Jack Quinn (eighth overall in 2020), and Owen Power (first overall in 2021).

Six of them were traded: Rasmus Ristolainen (eighth overall in 2013), Sam Reinhart (second overall in 2014), Jack Eichel (first overall in 2015), Alex Nylander (eighth overall in 2016), Casey Mittelstadt (eighth overall in 2017), and Matthew Savoie (ninth overall in 2022).

Ristolainen and Reinhart were traded following a disastrous 2021 season in which the Sabres went 15-34-7 in the shortened campaign. Ristolainen has developed into a strong two-way defender with the Philadelphia Flyers and Reinhart has blossomed into one of the league's best scorers with the Florida Panthers.

Eichel requested a trade from Buffalo after that 2021 season and was moved to the Vegas Golden Knights. Part of the move was because the Sabres wouldn't allow Eichel to <a href="https://www.nbcsports.com/nhl/news/jack-eichel-leads-the-way-in-nhl-for-disk-replacement-surgeries">have a certain surgery done</a> and the Golden Knights were fine letting him do it his own way. He won the Stanley Cup in his second season in Vegas.

Nylander was moved a couple of years after being drafted to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for defenceman Henri Jokiharju. Mittelstadt was dealt at last season's trade deadline to the Colorado Avalanche and Buffalo got back a promising young defenceman, Bowen Byram, in the trade. Savoie was traded to the Oilers in the off-season with Ryan McLeod and prospect Tyler Tullio going back the other way.

The verdict is still out when it comes to many of those players mentioned but that isn't a very good haul for ten consecutive years of top-ten draft picks.

3. It's difficult to say where the Sabres go from here. They're at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings after a decade's worth of top draft picks and they've already made a handful of major financial investments.

Buffalo has four players (Tage Thompson, Cozens, Dahlin, and Power) locked up for multiple years with a combined <a href="https://puckpedia.com/team/buffalo-sabres">cap hit</a> of $33 million and they have three more players making over $4 million each who are signed into next season.

Given the way things are going, a name like Dylan Cozens or Owen Power could be the next top-ten draft pick out the door in Buffalo.

4. Leading the way for the Sabres offensively is Thompson, who has 22 goals and 40 points in 43 games. Veterans Jason Zucker and Alex Tuch have 16 and 15 goals and Dahlin has chipped in 34 points from the blueline.

Among the disappointments for the Sabres this season have been Power and Cozens, who are both in the early stages of big contracts. Cozens signed a seven-year, $49.7 million deal in February of 2023 and has only 23 points in 48 games this season. Power signed a seven-year, $58.45 million extension in October of 2023 and has 24 points in 48 games along with a minus-11 rating in the first year of the deal.

Another contract that doesn't look good for Buffalo right now is Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The Sabres figured he was their goaltender of the future and signed him to a five-year, $23.75 million contract in the summer. The 25-year-old has a .897 save percentage in 2024-25, putting his career average at .902 through 135 NHL games.

5. The Oilers should beat the Sabres not only because they're a lottery team, but because they're at the tail end of a four-game road trip through the Pacific Division.

Buffalo lost 6-4 to the Seattle Kraken on Monday and then they beat the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday by a score of 3-2. They were dropped 5-2 against the Calgary Flames on Thursday and they'll wrap this trip up in Edmonton on Saturday afternoon.

Recent articles from Cam Lewis

Breaking News