Sabres and the 2025 NHL Draft

Buffalo could add another outstanding young player in the first round. They could also trade the pick to better attack their desperate need to make the playoffs next year.

Jake O’Brien and James Hagens speak to the media at the NHL Draft Combine in Buffalo. (Photo: Joe Yerdon)

The truth is what always hurts the most. The truth is what it is and that’s unassailable. It can be loudly denied, or it can be quietly ignored. For the Buffalo Sabres, the truth is inescapable even for those unaware of it.

The 2025 NHL Draft offers up the opportunity for the Sabres to create their own new truth. The draft provides an annual ray of hope for the most downtrodden franchises and it’s hard to argue the Sabres are the most down in the dirt organization in hockey. Missing the playoffs for 14 straight seasons doesn’t happen without mistakes galore, but opportunity is there to change all that again.

The Sabres own the ninth pick of the 2025 draft and despite it being a top 10 pick, the player they could select there likely won’t be able to help them alter their chances of ending the playoff drought right away. They’ve stockpiled picks under GM Kevyn Adams and restocked the prospect pipeline admirably. The Sabres have drafted well, and the results have been reflected in the success they’ve had at the AHL level in Rochester. But success hasn’t reached the NHL yet and that’s the problem.

The 2025 class features players who were born in 2006 or 2007, the last two years in which the Sabres made the Eastern Conference Final. These NHL hopefuls were four or five years old when Buffalo last graced the Stanley Cup Playoffs. For those of us who aren’t in our formative teen years, remembering what happened at those ages can be the kind of mental test that requires a nap or some time alone to ponder the passing of time. For guys 17-or-18 years old, it’s not all that long ago.