Locker cleanout | Top quotes from Day 2

The Buffalo Sabres continued their end-of-season media availabilities Wednesday at KeyBank Center.

• Locker cleanout Day 1 | Top quotes from Benson, Lyon, Doan, Kulich, others

Here are the top thoughts from those who spoke on Day 2, including:

• The Sabres’ 13-game playoff run and highly successful 2025-26 season
• The culture and bonds established in the Sabres’ room this year
• Injury and health updates | Injuries and transactions page
• Pending free agents and contract situations this summer
• Looking ahead to 2026-27

Rasmus Dahlin

On what the team accomplished this season: "We definitely took a step in the right direction. We’ve taken steps this year. We’ve really grown as an organization, as a team, as individuals. It’s a sour taste in my mouth after that loss, but in the bigger picture, we’ve done some good things this year. We’ve really grown. So, I’m excited for the future, that’s for sure.” 

On his first playoff experience: “It took me a couple games to just realize it’s not that big of a deal. Everybody talks about playoffs, you need experience, you need this and that. At the end of the day it’s just hockey. It’s high compete hockey. Once we realized that, we just went out there and played. I think we also realized that we can play in the playoffs. Like, we’re a legit team that can do damage in this league. We learned a lot of things. I’m still processing it. But, we’ve grown. We’ve learned a lot from this.”

On what fan support meant to him on a personal level this season: “I can’t be more thankful for everything. The stuff I went through, it seemed like the whole city had my back, the team, the organization.  I felt a lot of love, honestly. I can’t be more thankful, I do really appreciate it."

On his goals for the offseason: “Yeah, looking back last summer, that wasn’t an ideal summer to have. I’m just excited to get back into the gym, get more explosive, get faster, better condition, be able to play high quality in my minutes, stuff like that. I think my explosiveness has to get better. I need to be able to get my power in my skating back.”

Alex Tuch

On the Montreal series: "I thought Dobes played extremely well for them – apparently, especially against me. Coming off a Boston series that I thought I was really strong both offensively and defensively, I tried to carry some momentum into the Montreal series that ultimately led to me having zero points, everyone saw that, which was super frustrating. I thought my work ethic was there as the series went on. I thought my attention to detail got better. I thought it slipped away from me a little bit in the middle of the series there, some frustration sank in, which for me is a little uncharacteristic because I pride myself on being a pretty consistent player. So, offensively, I felt like I let my teammates down with that, but at the same time I was really proud of my effort. I was really proud of a lot of things during this entire season. But yeah, ultimately came up short and it was devastating.”

On his contract talks with the Sabres (he is scheduled to become a UFA on July 1): "Throughout the season obviously and if you go back to last summer, we had talks with Kevyn Adams and his management staff that didn’t progress to where we wanted it to, so we decided to kind of hold off and go through the season a little bit more and then maybe pick things back up. I think we chatted occasionally. And then when Jarmo stepped in we initially had some good talks and then they kind of stalled out a little bit. They continued to talk throughout the course of the season and at a point when we were starting to make the playoff push and everything, I decided it was in my best interest and the best interest for the team in general to put anything like that on hold until after the season was over. I had my exit meeting today, so I know that Jarmo once again expressed his desire to have me back on the team. Obviously, he’ll be in touch with my agent, and that’s it. Throughout the playoffs, it hasn’t been a focus of mine at all. Honestly I’ve just been thinking about the game and about the playoffs and that was it. So, obviously, the next month or so I’m gonna have to make some decisions here.”

On factors he'll consider when deciding whether to go to free agency:  “I mean, I love it here. I’ve loved my time here. I’ve loved playing hockey here. I’m going to do whatever’s best for myself and my family. That’s all. That’s my power and consideration. Like I said, I don’t know how talks are going to proceed. I don’t know what they’re going to say, I don’t know the future. But my main priority is my family and where we’ll be, where my kids will grow up and who we surround my kids with. There’s a lot of aspects that go into it. It’s not just numbers, it’s not just where to play. There’s endless amounts of possibilities and options for a guy going into free agency. You don’t really know anything until everything’s laid out in front of you. So, I’m going to take some time in the next few weeks to really figure it out and see how it goes.”

Jason Zucker

On expectations moving forward: "Playoffs is now an expectation for our group. It's not something we're striving for, it's the bare minimum, in my opinion, and I think we learned a lot this year. I think a lot of our guys grew up in a lot of ways, and I think we grew closer as a group and as a team, and as an organization, as a city. It was an incredible feeling to be a part of a city and a fan base like this, this year. I'd heard about it for so long, and unfortunately throughout my career, never been able to see it. Now that we have, it's a different feeling knowing that we have a fan base like this behind us, and it's incredible. It was a lot of fun to be a part of and I'm looking forward to playing in front of them again.” 

On the closeness of the team: “They keep me young that's for sure, but it makes it fun. You never know what you're gonna get on a daily basis from the likes of Benson and the rest of the crew. It definitely makes it enjoyable coming to the rink every day, and I think it became a really close-knit group because of that, and arguably the closest group I've ever been a part of, and it was definitely fun in that sense.”

Mattias Samuelsson

On how personally rewarding this season was: “I think first, for me, my faith was a big reason for this year. I give all the glory to God in that aspect just to kind of turn it around and have a good season, have a productive year, stay healthy, very satisfying for me. I've talked about it a lot, but those first couple years being injured, there's definitely some dark days, and then you doubt yourself a lot. The mental battle was worse than actually dealing with the injuries. To be able to put together a good stretch of hockey and be, for the most part, healthy enough to play every night brought a lot of joy back for me. I don't know if I said this last year, but there were stretches that I wasn't having fun coming to the rink, and that's who I am. I grew up, obviously, at the rink every single day, and it's been my whole life. There were times where I wasn't even having fun, it was hard. I think this year has been really big for me, just the confidence, and just having fun again, joining the game a lot more, and being able to show just what I can do when I'm on top of my game."

On what he learned about himself during the playoffs: "Probably just how much I enjoy the pressure. Obviously never really played in that big of a game before in my life, so just knowing your back's against the wall and its do or die and those type of games that are obviously the most fun. But I think people handle the pressure differently, and I think that's when I’m at my best. I think a lot of guys can say that."