- The Buffalo Sabres offensive core has become a little too crowded for prospect Jiri Kulich. In an article today from Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News, the Sabres organization is waiting for Kulich to ’tear up the league’ before giving him a full-time shot at the NHL level. The young forward has been a solid scorer for the Rochester Americans over the last two years as he’s scored 51 goals in 119 games and another seven goals in 17 postseason contests. Buffalo is looking for Kulich to expand upon his 0.76 PPG thus far and raise his level to one of the better point producers at the AHL level.
[SOURCE LINK]
Sabres Rumors
Eric Staal Announces Retirement
It’s been all quiet on the Western Front for Eric Staal for over a year now. The free-agent center reached the Stanley Cup Final with the Panthers in 2023 but didn’t sign or play anywhere last season.
On Tuesday, Staal confirmed he’d played his last NHL game, signing a one-day contract with Carolina to retire as a Hurricane. The Canes will also retire Staal’s No. 12 at a yet-to-be-announced game this season.
“I want to thank my family, former teammates, coaches and staff members who played a role in helping me live my dream, playing in the NHL,” Staal said in a statement released by the team. “I will forever treasure the memories and friendships made during my 18 years in the world’s best league.”
“There was no doubt in my mind that when it became time to hang up my skates, I would want to retire as a Carolina Hurricane,” he continued. “To now also know that the team is retiring my No. 12 is truly humbling and I am extremely grateful and honored.”
Staal, 39, is often overlooked as one of the NHL’s early salary-cap-era stars. But the Thunder Bay, Ontario native was always expected to make an indelible impact on the Canes after being drafted second overall in the famously stacked 2003 draft. While he hasn’t played there in over eight years – his tenure ended with a trade to the Rangers in 2016 – he’s still arguably the most impactful talent in Carolina history since the franchise relocated from Hartford in 1997.
His best came early, erupting as a sophomore in the 2005-06 season to lead the Canes in scoring with 45 goals and 100 points, both career-highs. 21 at the time, Staal was the centerpiece of the Canes’ best season in franchise history to that point, crossing the 50-win and 100-point thresholds for the first time. It ended in glory, adding nine goals and 28 points in 25 playoff games as he led the team in scoring en route to their first and only Stanley Cup.
Over parts of 12 seasons in Raleigh, Staal solidified himself as the Canes’ post-relocation leader in games played (909), goals (322), assists (453), points (775), power-play goals (105), power-play points (252) and hat tricks (13) – hat tip to the team’s Walt Ruff for those stats. He averaged over 20 minutes per game in a Carolina uniform and served as their captain from 2009 to 2016, succeeding franchise pillar Rod Brind’Amour.
Age-related decline came for Staal early, though, and his point totals were steadily decreasing by the time he was traded to the Rangers at age 31. His stay with the Blueshirts didn’t extend past the last few months of the season, and he landed in the State of Hockey with the Wild as a free agent in the summer of 2016. He had a bit of a resurgence in Minnesota, most remembered for a 42-goal, 76-point campaign in 2017-18 that placed him 17th in Hart Trophy voting. But his days of being a dominant top-line threat were behind him.
He played the final few seasons of his career with the Sabres, Canadiens and Panthers, serving as a good veteran depth piece on Montreal and Florida teams that each reached the championship series (2021 and 2023, respectively). But he couldn’t recapture the honor he had nearly two decades ago and was on the losing end of both series.
All in all, Staal wraps up his career with 455 goals, 608 assists and 1,063 points in 1,365 NHL games across 18 seasons. The eldest of the four Staal brothers with NHL experience, including Jared Staal, Jordan Staal and Marc Staal, retires at 76th on the league’s all-time scoring list. All of us at PHR congratulate Staal on a championship-caliber career and wish him the best as he enters the next phase of his hockey career.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Hurricanes Attempted To Trade Necas Prior To Extension
One of the biggest names on the trade market this offseason was taken off the board earlier today as the Carolina Hurricanes signed Martin Necas to a two-year, $13MM extension. However, the Hurricanes were also close to moving on from Necas earlier in the summer according to Frank Seravalli in Daily Faceoff’s podcast, the DFO Rundown (approximately 31-minute mark).
Seravalli asserts that Carolina had agreed to a Necas trade with the Buffalo Sabres. However, Seravalli did admit in the podcast that it may not have been the Sabres but he was fairly certain. The trade broke down relatively quickly as Necas purportedly would not agree to sign a new contract in Buffalo. Furthermore from Seravalli, the Hurricanes also had substantial trade talks with the Winnipeg Jets about Necas. He states the Jets had offered prospect Rutger McGroarty, forward Cole Perfetti, and an unspecified draft pick for Necas.
It is unknown when these trade conversations happened as Carolina may have taken Necas off the market entirely after losing Jake Guentzel to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Hurricanes expect to compete for a Stanley Cup next spring, and their competitive aspirations would have been greatly diminished by losing two top-six forwards in one summer.
All points made by Seravalli point to the idea that Necas had a lot of control over the negotiations and effectively blocked his inclusion in either trade due to his unwillingness not to sign an extension with either organization. Necas has committed himself to Carolina for two more seasons and will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the contract.
Factoring in Buffalo’s other moves from the summer, adding Necas into the team’s top six would have allowed them to move Jason Zucker down to the third line. Even still, with Zach Benson prepping for a bigger season in 2024-25, and Jiri Kulich on the cusp of cracking the roster; Necas may have dramatically saturated Buffalo’s forward core. However, unlike Benson and Kulich, Necas is an established player at the NHL level.
Without knowing the return to Carolina in the rumored swap with Buffalo, he is coming off a season in which he scored 24 goals and 53 points in 77 games and is only two years removed from scoring 71 points over a full season. He would have helped the Sabres return to their 2022-23 team goal production after seeing a nearly 50-goal decrease this past year, but Buffalo may have been better served by letting the rest of their prospect develop over the next two or three seasons.
The reported deal from the Jets organization appears on paper as a massive overpay, as Perfetti has arguably already shown he can be a top-six threat in limited playing time. The former 10th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft averaged 13:35 minutes last year and still managed to score 19 goals and 38 points in 71 games. Including McGroarty in the deal (who is coming off a 52-point campaign at the University of Michigan) would have given Carolina two two-six talents in exchange for one.
Nevertheless, Necas was never dealt with this summer and will remain with the Hurricanes organization for the foreseeable future. He will look to rebound off a depressed campaign last season and look to build upon his production in 2022-23 before entering the free agent market when he is 27 years old.
2024 Salary Arbitration Tracker
It has been a quieter year on the salary arbitration front across the NHL. After 23 players filed last summer, just 14 did this time around. As expected, most have settled so far with a few hearings still pending. Here’s a rundown of who has settled and who still needs to sign.
Updated 7/30/24, 1:07 p.m.
Contracts Settled
D Jake Christiansen (Blue Jackets) – one year, $775K (two-way agreement)
F Connor Dewar (Maple Leafs) – one year, $1.18MM
F Jack Drury (Hurricanes) – two years, $3.45MM
D Ty Emberson (Sharks) – one year, $950K
G Jet Greaves (Blue Jackets) – two years, $1.625MM (two-way in 2024-25, one-way in 2025-26)
F Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (Sabres) – five years, $23.75MM
F Beck Malenstyn (Sabres) – two years, $2.7MM
D J.J. Moser (Lightning) – two years, $6.75MM
F Joe Veleno (Red Wings) – two years, $4.55MM
F Oliver Wahlstrom (Islanders) – one year, $1MM
F Kirill Marchenko (Blue Jackets) – three years, $11.55MM
F Martin Necas (Hurricanes) – two years, $13MM
D Ryan Lindgren (Rangers) – one year, $4.5MM
Contracts Awarded
D Spencer Stastney (Predators) – two years, $1.675MM (two-way in 2024-25, one-way in 2025-26)
Scheduled Hearings
none
A reminder of some of the arbitration rules for the upcoming potential hearings:
- A player and team can settle on a deal at any point before the hearing starts.
- Once the hearing has taken place, the arbitration decision must be issued by email within 48 hours.
- Arbitration awards can only be one or two years in length. (Players who are in their final year of restricted free agency are only entitled to a one-year agreement from an arbitrator.)
- The team decides on the awarded term as these were all player-elected filings.
- The team can walk away from the arbitration decision if a contract with an average annual value of more than $4.74MM is awarded.
Worth noting is that teams who have someone file for arbitration will receive a second buyout window three days after their final contract is settled or awarded. The window lasts for 48 hours and the only eligible players to be bought out in this timeframe are those who have an AAV of $4MM or more and were on that team’s reserve list at the trade deadline back in March.
Sabres Sign Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen To Five-Year Contract
The Buffalo Sabres have solidified their goaltending situation for the next half decade as the team announced they signed Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to a five-year, $23.75MM contract. The deal will pay Luukkonen an AAV of $4.75MM each year of the contract and keep the young netminder in Buffalo until the 2028-29 NHL season.
The deal comes just under the current contract of Vancouver Canucks’ netminder Thatcher Demko who secured a five-year, $25MM contract back in 2021. Luukkonen is arguably coming off a better season than when Demko signed his extension in 2021 which may indicate this deal is somewhat of a bargain for the Sabres.
If any positives came from Buffalo during the 2023-24 season, they largely centered around Luukkonen. The start of the year was disappointing as he produced a 6-8-2 record in his first 17 games with a .893 save percentage. At the turn of the calendar, however, Luukkonen went on an impressive stretch to end the season.
Since his first game at the start of the calendar year, Luukkonen concluded the season with a 20-14-2 record in 36 games while maintaining a .919 SV%. Luukkonen finished the season with a 27-22-4 record in 51 starts while earning a .910 SV% and 2.57 goals against average.
Aside from becoming the undisputed starter for the Sabres, the young Finnish netminder recorded five shutouts, 10.1 goals saved above average, and 2.65 adjusted goals against average according to HockeyReference. All of these served as career highs for Luukkonen after coming off a disappointing season the year prior.
This will be the major question surrounding this contract in Buffalo as Luukkonen has only produced one good season in the NHL. This is not to take away from his dominance last year but he has failed to produce back-to-back quality seasons in the best league in the sport.
Luckily, the Sabres do have a fallback option if this contract doesn’t pan out as expected with Devon Levi ready for full-time NHL responsibilities. The young netminder split time between Buffalo and the team’s AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans and he produced a 16-6-4 record in the AHL with a .927 SV% and 2.42 GAA.
General manager of the Sabres, Kevyn Adams, acknowledged this in the announcement when he said, “We really like the position we’re in with having UPL and Devon Levi as still young, developing goaltenders, guys we think are going to continue to grow and get better, that are extremely talented, hard-working, and character people“.
Sabres, Beck Malenstyn Avoid Arbitration
9:37 a.m.: The Sabres have confirmed Malenstyn’s deal as reported.
7:58 a.m.: The Sabres and left winger Beck Malenstyn have avoided arbitration, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The winger lands a two-year, $2.7MM pact with a $1.35MM cap hit.
Malenstyn, 26, spent the last seven seasons in the Capitals’ organization after being picked in the fifth round of the 2016 draft. This wasn’t his first time being eligible for arbitration – he could have filed back in 2022 after completing a one-year, two-way deal but agreed to a two-year extension before reaching RFA status. The longtime minor league fixture broke into a full-time NHL role last season, playing a career-high 81 games and logging significant penalty kill time, but Washington decided not to retain him. The Sabres acquired his signing rights on Day 2 of the 2024 draft, with their second-round pick (No. 43 – D Cole Hutson) going the other way.
It’s unclear when Malenstyn’s arbitration hearing was slated for, although it was sometime in the next two weeks. Unlike past seasons, the NHLPA did not release a schedule of each player’s hearing date; instead, they only opted to confirm the range of dates for all hearings (July 20 – Aug. 4). Only one case out of the 14 players who filed, Predators defenseman Spencer Stastney, has made it to a hearing thus far. His was Monday, so a decision will be issued by tomorrow.
Malenstyn, who often struggled with injuries throughout his development and assumed a checking role on the farm with AHL Hershey in parts of four seasons, solidified himself as an effective bottom-of-the-lineup presence last season. Averaging 14:15 per game, Malenstyn contributed six goals and 15 assists for 21 points while leading the Caps in hits (241). He could conceivably be called the purest shutdown forward in the league – over 90% of his even-strength zone starts came in the defensive end last season, per Hockey Reference. He also led Washington forwards in shorthanded usage at 2:37 per game.
After trading away captain Kyle Okposo at the deadline and losing Zemgus Girgensons and Eric Robinson to free agency, the Sabres needed some depth wingers to anchor their bottom six as their young talent progresses. They paid a premium on the trade market to get the 6’3″, 200-lb Malenstyn, but he does fit the bill. In fact, Buffalo will likely ice two-thirds of the Caps’ fourth line from last season come opening night after landing Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, who played opposite Malenstyn at right wing for much of the season, in free agency. Malenstyn will also challenge for first-unit penalty killing duties as he did in Washington.
Malenstyn will be 28 years old when this deal expires, making him eligible for unrestricted free agency for the first time in 2026. The Sabres have $13.2MM in projected cap space remaining (PuckPedia) and still need new deals for RFAs Peyton Krebs and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, the latter of whom filed for arbitration.
AHL Notes: Weissbach, Penguins, Wolf Pack
Free agent forward Linus Weissbach has signed with Frölunda HC of the SHL. Weissbach was a Group-VI UFA with the Sabres, effectively moving to unrestricted free agency after not receiving a qualifying offer from the team before July 1st.
This move returns Weissbach to his hometown of Göteborg, Sweden, where Weissbach grew up through the Frölunda pipeline. He made his debut with the organization’s top club in 2016, though he only played in one game before moving to North America and pursuing a four-year career with the University of Wisconsin. He graduated college in 2021 and has since spent the last three seasons with the Rochester Americans, accumulating 117 points across 191 games in the minor leagues. But despite consistent production and a stout role in Rochester’s top-six, Weissbach was never the top option for a call-up, losing standing to more robust minor leaguers like Lukas Rousek and Brett Murray, and more recently bumped out by prospects like Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen.
With that logjam only increasing after Buffalo’s successful 2024 NHL Draft, Weissbach will change his focus to pursuing a career with his hometown club. Frölunda’s sporting director Fredrik Sjöström shared his excitement for the move, saying, “We have lost two offensively skilled players in [Malte Strömwall] and [Jere Innala]. We wanted to bring in offensive skill and “Weiss” is just that. He is a skilled forward with good speed and plays like a pattern breaker. He fits what we wanted. We’ve been on him for a while and knew we needed to wait for some other parameters before he could choose us (Linus has been a free agent in North America). But he did and we are happy about that, says Fredrik Sjöström, sports director.”
Other notes out of the minor leagues:
- The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have added Nick Luukko as an assistant coach. Luukko, 32, has spent the last three seasons as the head coach and Director of Hockey Operations for the ECHL’s Jacksonville Icemen, leading the team to the postseason in each year, though they never made it past the second round. He earned the role with Jacksonville just two seasons after ending his own playing career – which spanned 274 ECHL games – after just one season as an ECHL assistant coach. He’ll now fast-track to the next level, joining a Penguins organization in the midst of cycling out much of their org chart.
- The Hartford Wolf Pack have hired Brendan Burke as a goaltending coach. Burke has spent the last two seasons as a goaltending coach for his former youth and junior hockey teams – the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes and Portland Winterhawks. He earned an NHL Draft selection with Portland in 2012-13, hearing his name called in the sixth round by his hometown Phoenix Coyotes. Burke is the son of legendary NHL goaltender Sean Burke, who is now serving as Vegas’ Director of Goaltending.
Sabres’ Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen An Emerging Starter Amid Competition
The Buffalo Sabres faced an exciting question entering the 2023-24 season – “how high will Devon Levi climb?” It seemed like Levi was set for certain stardom coming off a historically good collegiate career, with some even claiming him as a pre-season favorite for the Calder Trophy opposite Connor Bedard. But Levi’s first full year of pro hockey proved to be much more human than anticipated, and it was Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen who stole Buffalo’s starting role while Levi split time between the NHL backup and AHL starter roles. Luukkonen performed well in the spotlight, managing 27 wins, a .910 save percentage, and five shutouts while handling a commendable 54 games. Now, nearly a month into the off-season, Luukkonen sits as an unsigned restricted free agent and Buffalo faces a new, much bleaker question: “who is our starter?”
The clearest answer seems to be Luukkonen, who’s still just 25 years old and coming off a year that would make any starter proud. It’s been a long march for the Finnish netminder, who struggled to find his footing through his first three years in North American pros. He kicked off his career by earning an AHL promotion on the back of 23 strong ECHL games, though he’d stall out with the Rochester Americans, ultimately recording a bleak .894 save percentage in 60 AHL games between the start of the 2018-19 and the end of the 2021-22 seasons.
But injuries forced Buffalo to recall Luukkonen twice in 2021, ultimately awarding him the first 13 NHL games of his career. He performed well in the spot starts, managing a .913 save percentage despite winning just three games. That was a bright enough flash to earn him a share of backup minutes in the 2022-23 campaign – an opportunity that he took in stride. In a reverse of his early stat line, Luukkonen found strong success in the win column despite a sub-.900 save percentage, posting a team-leading 17 wins and standing as the only Sabres goaltender with a winning record that year. His winning tendencies and strong stat lines merged in the starting role this year, ultimately leading to a season that was hard to ignore. Luukkonen’s 27 wins stand as the most of any Sabres goaltender since Ryan Miller in 2012, and his .910 save percentage is the team’s highest since Robin Lehner in 2017.
Simply put, it’s been a while since Buffalo has seen a goalie season as capable as Luukkonen’s 2023-24 campaign. The team now faces the dreaded task of putting a price to the starring performance, without much supplementary info to go on. Levi’s presence only makes Buffalo’s decision harder. The 22-year-old top prospect managed a .899 save percentage in 23 games as an NHL rookie this season – certainly nothing to bluff at – and a .927 in 26 AHL games – the second-highest save percentage in the minors. Levi still carries a blue chip, even if his highly-anticipated rookie year fell short of the history books. Any long-term extension for Luukkonen would have to consider Levi’s rightful shot at opportunity. And while Buffalo can dream of a perfectly balanced duo akin to Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, it seems more likely that each of Luukonen and Levi’s success comes on the back of a consistent role.
So what could a new deal look like for Luukkonen – and what kind of time share is awaiting him? Thatcher Demko is currently riding a five-year, $25MM extension earned after a pair of limited but promising seasons with the Vancouver Canucks where he managed 29 wins and a .910 save percentage across 62 games. That falls closely in line with Luukkonen’s strong 2023-24, though Demko carried the prestige of a higher draft pick and stronger track record. The Sabres could instead vie for a deal more comparable to Alexandar Georgiev – who joined the Colorado Avalanche on a three-year, $10.2MM deal in 2022 after holding well in the New York Rangers backup role. Like Demko and Luukkonen, Georgiev’s deal came with little to go on, save for a strong stat line in limited minutes.
Unfortunately for the Sabres, both Demko and Georgiev followed their signings with 60-game seasons – and both performed well with the opportunity. That precedent, and Buffalo’s plea for strong consistency in net after so long without it, could force the Sabres to commit to a full year of Luukkonen. That would set them up for a situation more closely related to Nashville’s than Boston’s, with a top-end, young goaltender burgeoning out of the AHL starter role, but an all-too-capable starter hogging the limelight. Or the Sabres may bridge the gap between the two teams – a benefit of a nearby AHL team – finding ways to incorporate Levi into the lineup whenever available, while still honoring Luukkonen’s deserved chance at a full-time role. Either way, the team’s vision for their goaltending will be spelled out by the contract they sign Luukkonen to – and it will be a decision with major ramifications.
Sabres’ Arttu Ruotsalainen Signs In SHL
Forward Arttu Ruotsalainen has terminated his contract with Lugano of Switzerland’s National League and signed a one-year contract with the SHL’s Frolunda HC.
Ruotsalainen signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Buffalo Sabres in 2019, joining the team as an undrafted free agent out of Finland. His deal slid for one year, formerly kicking into gear when Ruotsalainen joined the Sabres for the delayed 2020-21 season. He kicked off his North American career in the AHL, though he earned a quick call-up with 13 points through his first 13 games. He continued the year as Buffalo’s extra forward, ultimately slotting into 17 NHL games and scoring five goals and six points.
Ruotsalainen continued on as a go-to depth forward in 2021-22, netting four points in 18 NHL games and 51 points in 57 AHL games. But finding his scoring groove wasn’t enough to convince Ruotsalainen that Buffalo was the right home, and he forwent the last year of his NHL contract in favor of a move to Kloten HC of the National League in 2022-23. Ruotsalainen maintained his strong production through the change, netting 42 points in 52 games, though he struggled to carry it in his move to Lugano – with just 14 points in 43 games this year. It was an unusually low-scoring year for the dynamic centerman, who’s managed at least 40 points in three of his last five European seasons, dating back to his six-year career in Finland’s Liiga spanning from 2015 to 2021.
Still just 26, Ruotsalainen is now moving to his third European league looking to rediscover his scoring spark. He’ll be helped along by a tactical and high-skill Frolunda offense, which stomped to the semi-finals this year before losing a seven-game series against the eventual champions, Skelleftea AIK. He should be an immediate top forward in the lineup, though he’ll have to compete with captains Max Friberg and Nicklas Lasu for the role of first-line center.
Poll: Which Postseason Drought Is Likeliest To End In 2024-25?
There has not been one team in the NHL unable to make the playoffs during the inception of the salary cap era in 2005-06. The league has experienced unprecedented competition under the new format but there are still several teams who haven’t been able to crack the Stanley Cup playoffs for the last several years. As of right now, the Buffalo Sabres (13), Detroit Red Wings (8), Ottawa Senators (7), and Anaheim Ducks (6) hold the longest current postseason droughts in the league. Which one of these teams has the best odds of ending their postseason drought and returning to the playoffs in 2025?
The odds looked good for Buffalo towards the end of the 2022-23 regular season but the team ultimately finished one point short of the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference to the Florida Panthers. The team boosted their defensive core over the summer and had their eyes on contention in 2023-24. Unfortunately, the season did not go as planned for the Sabres and the team finished seven points back of the last playoff spot in the East. The team still has a wealth of young talent either on the team or close to cracking the roster, but the offseason feels a bit misjudged at the outset. With a need to fill out their bottom six, Buffalo brought in Jason Zucker, Ryan McLeod, Sam Lafferty, and Nicolas Aube-Kubel this summer and appear to be running back a similar roster next year with Lindy Ruff back as head coach.
Detroit tied the Washington Capitals for the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference for the 2023-24 regular but ultimately lost the tiebreaker on the last day of the regular season. The team took a major step forward in their rebuild after acquiring talents such as Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane, and Shayne Gostisbehere who dramatically improved the team’s competitiveness. The Red Wings’ major letdown of the 2023-24 regular season was the defense which gave up the seventh most shots against in the league. Ghostisbehere walked in free agency along with other veterans who were replaced by Cam Talbot, Erik Gustafsson, and Vladimir Tarasenko. Detroit should still be able to score in bunches next year but the team has inarguably failed up to this point this summer in improving their biggest weakness from last season.
It feels that Ottawa has experienced two separate rebuilds over the last seven years with the first coming under the helm of Pierre Dorion and the current iteration led by Steve Staios. The three biggest moves of the Senators’ offseason were acquiring former Vezina winner Linus Ullmark from the Boston Bruins, shipping defenseman Jakob Chychrun to the Capitals for a lackluster return, and prying veteran David Perron from the Red Wings on a two-year deal. Ullmark should serve as a massive upgrade in between the pipes compared to their situation last year but moving on from Chychrun will certainly sting on the blue line. Ottawa finished 14 points out of a playoff spot last season but could be a surprising team with a wealth of talent up front and a consistent netminder.
Lastly, the Ducks register as the least likely of the group to crack their postseason drought as they finished nearly 40 points out of a playoff spot last season. Anaheim brought in forward Robby Fabbri and defenseman Brian Dumoulin via trade this offseason but neither strike as needle-movers to an offense-needy organization. The upcoming season should serve as a reasonable benchmarking year for the Ducks organization as the team looks to graduate several prospects to the NHL level. Anaheim could cause some noise in a weak Pacific Division but their odds of making the playoffs are still low.
Of the four longest current playoff droughts in the NHL — which of these four teams do you think has the best odds to end their drought next season?
Which Postseason Drought Is Likeliest To End In 2024-25?
Detroit Red Wings
54.01%
(1,036 votes)
Buffalo Sabres
25.39%
(487 votes)
Ottawa Senators
14.86%
(285 votes)
Anaheim Ducks
5.74%
(110 votes)
Total Votes: 1,918