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.”

On Sabres coach Lindy Ruff: “He is so good at pushing us. That’s the main thing. There’s no time for effing around, you have to be uncomfortable every day. I think that’s what really helped us as a group. We took care of the other stuff, but he made sure he pushed us every day, and I think that brought us a lot of success for sure.”

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.”

Tage Thompson

On Tuch's future with the team: “I don’t think it’s a secret that everyone in that room wants him to come back. He’s a huge piece of this team, a massive reason why we got to where we did. He’s my neighbor, he lives right across the street. We’re very tight, so I don’t think there’s anyone in that room who wants him back more than me. But at the same time, it is a business and I understand that side of it."

On playing through injuries: "I had some low-back stuff going on most of the playoffs. Nothing ridiculous, but just stuff from a long season. Guys are always playing through stuff, especially in playoffs, not a lot of time to recover.”

On Buffalo feeling like home: My wife and I joke, this is the longest place I’ve lived my whole life. I think I’ve been here about eight years now, so that surpasses any other place I’ve ever lived in the course of my life up until this point. Pretty wild to think about that this is truly home. It’s where I’ve had my kids and raising them here and seeing them at the games and being able to create these memories that I was fortunate enough to have with my dad when he played. Those are just the little things that I remember growing up and got me to fall in love with the game. Now, I get to create those memories with my kids and do it here in Buffalo. It’s been amazing, honestly. The adversity I think that we faced over the last number of years that I’ve been here has made this feeling rewarding in a different sense as far as I’ve been here and we haven’t won. You see the fanbase and how they’re just starving for hockey to be good around here and to see how passionate they were this year and how excited this whole city was for playoffs is a super rewarding feeling.”

On the pride he and Rasmus Dahlin share as the longest-tenured Sabres after returning the franchise to the playoffs: "It’s something that we’ve talked about for a long time, being here as long as we have. Guys have come and gone and weren’t able to do it. That was always a big thing we talked about, is taking a lot of pride in being two big pieces of ending the drought and bringing winning hockey back to Buffalo. It’s a weird feeling because it’s a rewarding feeling, but at the same time, the way the season ended, it still stings and hurts. So, it’s a mixed bag of emotions. But I think when you take a step back and look at the progress we’ve made this year and the steps we’ve taken and a lot of the goals that we set out in front of us at the beginning of the season, we’ve surpassed them. Now that standard just gets changed and the bar gets set higher. It gets me excited and it gets Dahls excited. It’s something we’ve been dreaming about for a while. Now it’s here.”

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."

Bowen Byram

On the Sabres' great group of defensemen: "I just feel like it’s pretty rare to have a guy like Dahls, then follow him up with Samuelsson, and follow him up with O.P. and myself, and the list continues to go on. Timmins had a great year. Metsa had a great year. Stanley was good when he came in for us. ... I felt like every other night, it was a different guy scoring a big goal or making a big play or blocking a big shot or making a big defensive play, whatever it might be, and that’s, I think, the most important thing: having a bunch of selfless guys that just want to succeed."

On his defense partner Owen Power's growth this season: "He’s a great teammate, he works his butt off every single day at the rink, he wants to get better, he takes care of himself, he takes care of his body and works on his game every day. And he's a great guy, so super happy for him."

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

On Game 7 and his season overall: “I think the end was really disappointing. As I said after the game too, I think we could have gone further, we have a great group of guys, so that's what sucks the most about it. But I think in the big picture, as a team and personally for me, it was a good year. Not necessarily the start I wanted for the year, but was able to turn it around and play some good hockey this year.”

On benefiting from the Sabres' three-goalie roster: "It helps you feel fresh. Mentally and physically, you feel great pretty much every game when you get those nights off. So, hats off to [Alex Lyon and Colten Ellis], both of them were great this year, played really good hockey too, and they’re unreal guys and unreal competitors too. It was a rotation that worked, but it wouldn't have worked if they didn't bring what they did to the table."

Peyton Krebs

On his status as a restricted free agent this summer: "My daughter was born here. I got engaged here. This is definitely a home for my family and I, and I’d love to be a part of this team as long as I can. Obviously, the group of guys here are unbelievable and a lot of fun to be around. I think that’s the biggest thing: Is it a fun environment to come to the rink? And that it is, for sure. I got to know my neighbors really well, and all the people out in Clarence where I live. It’s definitely something I’m looking forward to, and I want to bring a Stanley Cup here."

On what Lindy Ruff's coaching has done for him: "Obviously, Lindy’s been a big part of where I am today, for sure. He allows me just to work my brains out, and I’ll get rewarded. I think that’s the biggest message (when) I come to work every day: ‘Krebsy, do your thing, then you’re gonna get rewarded.’ I just try to have that mindset that, no matter where I’m at, as long as I work hard, good things will happen."

Owen Power

On coming back from his Game 5 injury and finishing the series vs. Montreal: "I think everyone’s a little banged up at the end of the year. I was very grateful for the staff here. and my wife and all the people around me did a really good job of helping me to be able to be good to go. I was in a good spot, and a lot of good people around me that know what they're doing and were able to help me to play those last two games."

On how he improved as a defender this season: “Taking probably a little different approach to it. I think a lot of it comes from my feet, and when my feet are moving and I'm confident in my feet, I'm able to close more plays, and it allows me to be a little more physical. That was a big thing for me this year, is trying to defend with my feet rather than trying to go out there and hope to not get beat, basically. I think with my whole game, really, a lot of it stems from skating, and I was able to take a step in the right direction defending. Focusing on using my feet to defend rather than just stick or whatever."

On enjoying this group of guys and the Sabres' team culture: "It's been awesome. It's definitely the most fun I've had with a group of guys in my career. ... I think this year, the culture took that next step, and you come in every day excited to see the guys, and I don't think there's ever really a dull day with the guys in the group. It was always a blast coming in and just bantering with each other.”

Josh Norris

On settling into Buffalo since the March 2025 trade: "It’s been amazing. Buffalo’s been awesome, and I’ve come to love the city and the area and the people, everything that comes with it. It reminds me of home a little bit, being from Detroit. Just such a great sports city, and the type of people here are just amazing, hardworking, down to earth. It’s been a lot of fun to be here. I love being here, and I think every guy in that room would say the same thing. It’s a pleasure to play here."

Noah Ostlund

On the lower-body injury that ended his playoffs in Game 5 vs. Boston: "I’ll be fine here in a couple of weeks, I hope. I hope it’s not gonna interrupt my training that much. I feel better, I’ve been skating, so I’m getting there. ... It sucked. I was so happy to be back from the first injury, and then the other one came. It definitely sucked, and I was getting hopeful to come back in the next round."

On his rookie NHL season: "I think it’s been a good year for me, establishing myself a little bit more on the team. And I think I have much more to give, too. I think I was a little bit up and down. Happy overall; feel like I have much more to give."

Ryan McLeod

On the progress these Sabres made toward Stanley Cup contention: "You don’t see a lot of teams just making the playoffs for the first time and winning the Cup. You want this experience and got to be in those situations to get comfortable, and I think this year was a great step for us to get that feeling. You kind of learn what it takes to win. Can’t really fall back on going to the second round and losing Game 7; you’ve got to be pushing to take bigger steps and, next year, make the goal to win the Cup."