Jarmo Kekäläinen was named general manager of the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 15, 2025. He previously served as a senior advisor for the Sabres beginning May 30, 2025. The 2025-26 season marks his 28th season working in an NHL front office. Kekäläinen is the first European-born general manager in Sabres history.

A native of Kuopio, Finland, Kekäläinen spent parts of 12 seasons as general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2013 to 2024, becoming the first European-born general manager in NHL history. During his tenure, Columbus reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs five times, set a franchise record with 50 wins and 108 points in 2016-17, and captured the organization’s first playoff series win with a first-round sweep of Tampa Bay in 2019.

Prior to his time in Columbus, Kekäläinen held executive roles with the St. Louis Blues and Ottawa Senators, serving in positions that included assistant general manager, director of amateur scouting, director of player personnel, and European scout. With St. Louis, he oversaw seven draft classes that produced 32 NHL players, including 12 who went on to play more than 500 NHL games. He also spent three years as general manager of Jokerit in Finland’s top professional league and worked with the Finnish national team program.

Kekäläinen played collegiately at Clarkson University and professionally in Finland and Sweden before transitioning into management.

Jerry Forton enters his first season as the Sabres’ assistant general manager, and his 12th season with Buffalo overall, in
2024-25. He was promoted to assistant general manager on June 11, 2024.

Prior to his promotion, Forton served as Buffalo’s director of amateur scouting from 2020 to 2024. He previously spent three
seasons in Buffalo as the team’s director of collegiate scouting and two seasons as assistant director of scouting. Preceding
that, Forton served as an amateur scout for the Sabres during the 2014-15 season and as an assistant coach during the
2013-14 campaign.

Before joining the Sabres organization, Forton spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Harvard University (2011 to
2013), two seasons as an assistant coach at UMass-Lowell (2009 to 2011), and 14 seasons as an assistant coach at
Niagara University (1995 to 2009).

During his tenure at Niagara, Forton helped transform the Purple Eagles from a first-year Division III varsity program in 1996-97 to an NCAA Division I
tournament team in 2000, 2004 and 2008. Niagara’s 1999-2000 team finished with a 30-8-1record and reached the NCAA semifinals. Niagara won
four conference regular-season championships and four tournament titles in Forton’s time there. The Purple Eagles ranked among the nation’s top 20 in
six of their 11 Division I seasons.

A 1987 graduate of University of Buffalo (UB) where he played both varsity soccer and hockey from 1983-87. He was inducted into the UB Hall of Fame
for both sports in 1997. He also graduated from UB law school in 1989. He served as a player agent for two years shortly thereafter.

Mark Jakubowski is in his 20th year with the Sabres and currently serves as the club’s assistant general manager.

His responsibilities include salary cap analysis, contract research relating to player negotiations and arbitrations, managing
player transfers, team roster administration, and all matters relating to compliance with the NHL Collective Bargaining
Agreement and other NHL agreements. Jakubowski also assists with the American Hockey League hockey operations of the
team’s minor league affiliate, the Rochester Americans.

Sam Ventura enters his fourth full season with the Sabres after being named the team’s Vice President of Hockey Research
and Strategy prior to the start of the 2021 season.

He spent the previous six seasons as a part of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ front office and captured two Stanley Cups with
the team (2016 and 2017). Ventura served as the Penguins’ director of hockey research from 2017 to 2020 prior to being
promoted to director of hockey operations and hockey research during the 2020 offseason. He joined the Penguins as a team
consultant in 2015.

Ventura attended Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned a bachelor’s in computational finance and statistics, a
master’s in statistics and a doctorate in statistics and served as an assistant coach for the men’s hockey team.