BUFFALO -- Jarmo Kekalainen made it clear that qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs won’t be enough as long as he’s general manager of the Buffalo Sabres.
“It's great to make the playoffs, but we're not just here to make the playoffs, we're here to try to build a championship team,” Kekalainen said on Tuesday, one day after he replaced Kevyn Adams as Sabres GM. “Winning the Cup is the goal. I think every team in this league is here for the same goal, and that's the goal that we have with the Buffalo Sabres. Obviously, you’ve got to make the playoffs first to be able to even compete for that.”
Kekalainen was initially hired on May 30 as a senior adviser to Adams, who was fired in his sixth season. He was previously the GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2013-24, becoming the first European GM in NHL history.
Buffalo has not qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011, the longest postseason drought in League history. The closest it has come during that stretch was in 2022-23, when it finished one point (42-33-7, 91 points) behind the Florida Panthers (42-32-8, 92 points) for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference. The Sabres finished 39-37-6 (84 points) in 2023-24 and 36-39-7 (79 points) last season.
This season, they are 14-14-4 through 32 games and entered Tuesday six points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card from the East. However, they’re also tied with the Columbus Blue Jackets for last in the conference.
“I think we're close,” Kekalainen said. “You can’t [hit] the fast-forward button, even if you'd like to sometimes. … I think there are a lot of good pieces here. I think we're very close. I firmly believe we can make the playoffs this year. There's a lot of hockey left.”
The postseason drought continues to hover over the franchise, though. Captain Rasmus Dahlin and center Tage Thompson have endured it the longest, with each in his eighth season with Buffalo. Defenseman Mattias Samuelsson has been with the Sabres for six seasons, and forward Alex Tuch for five. Thompson, Tuch and Samuelsson are alternate captains.
Kekalainen spoke with the players before his press conference on Tuesday, informing them he has no desire of pursuing a quick fix simply to clinch a playoff berth.
“I’m not going to sacrifice the ultimate goal for the sake of making the playoffs and then not having any sustainability for our goal as a team to take the next step and have it be an opportunity, a chance to compete for the Stanley Cup,” Kekalainen said. “So, no, we’re not going to do that.
“We’re going to have a plan, and the plan is going to be the Stanley Cup. And we’re not going to take any shortcuts to try to just make the playoffs to end the drought. ... We have some really good core pieces here. We’re close. Now we just have to take the next step.”
Buffalo will play its first game with Kekalainen as GM against the Philadelphia Flyers at KeyBank Center on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+). The team is led by coach Lindy Ruff, whose resume Kekalainen noted “speaks for itself” before adding he’s “really enjoyed” his time so far with him.
Ruff, 65, is in his second stint as Sabres coach after being hired on April 22, 2024.
“He works his tail off every day, and he's looking for ways to get better,” Kekalainen said.
However, Kekalainen said he’ll look at everything moving forward, “whether it's the scouting staff, management, coaches.”
“Everybody is under evaluation at this point, but there are a lot of good people here that are great at their jobs,” he said.
Ultimately, what Kekalainen hopes to see on the ice moving forward is consistency. The Sabres wrapped up a season-long six-game road trip with a three-game winning streak, their first such run this season, and earned their first regulation road victories in the last two. The trip began with three straight losses, and heading into it, Buffalo had won only twice away from home (once in overtime, once in a shootout).
“Losing to teams that have less talent that outwork you, that’s unacceptable,” Kekalainen said. “We just can’t have that. ... We need to build on the character and the consistency and the competitiveness and be relentless that way.
“What can we do today to get better, whether it’s on an individual level or as a team? We’re going to focus on today. We don’t even want to look too much into the future. We’ve got a lot of hockey left this year. I think we can do special things with this team.”
