“Buffalo Sabres: From Basement to Breakout? Offseason Moves Spark Playoff Hopes!”

The Buffalo Sabres' current 14-year playoff drought means they'll have to earn respect from around the NHL. It'll never be given freely. They're an also-ran until proven otherwise, and a modest batch of offseason moves surely wasn't enough to satisfy the critics.

Ryan Dixon of Sportsnet released his latest offseason NHL power rankings on Monday. The Sabres were placed 26th out of the league's 32 teams.

"We're way past 'believe it when I see it' with this group. Surely this is GM Kevyn Adams' final kick at the playoff can," Dixon wrote.

It's a fair assessment. Although we've analyzed some reasons for Sabres optimism and looked at how Buffalo is set up well financially moving forward, the reality is the club missed the playoffs by 12 points last season and failed to make a major summer splash.

The additions of Josh Doan, Michael Kesselring, Conor Timmins and Alex Lyon worked nicely on paper given the Sabres' offseason needs, but they're not enough to move the needle at a league-wide level. They are decent upgrades for an organization that needed more of an overhaul.

That's not to say the Sabres can't turn the narrative around beginning in October, though.

Perhaps Doan blossoms into a solid offensive contributor, Kesselring provides some much-needed stability next to Owen Power, Zach Benson takes another step toward stardom and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen returns to his 2023-24 form.

If you combine those factors with continued elite production from Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, Buffalo will have a legitimate chance to reach the playoffs. (And maybe they'll even make a little postseason noise.)

At the same time, that's part of the Sabres' problem. For years, they've made small moves while betting too heavily on internal improvement to make up the difference. It's one of the main reasons they own the longest playoff absence in NHL history.

Buffalo sports fans hope the tide eventually turns in the Sabres' favor, and history suggests it probably will. When that'll happen is a mystery, though. And it's going to take another handful of years beyond that to become legitimate Stanley Cup contenders.

The city's diehard fanbase, which fondly remembers the Plaza in the Plaza playoff events, will come rushing back whenever that day finally arrives. Sabres fandom is dormant, not dead. Fans are just begging the organization for a reason to care again.

But, until that turnaround begins and starts to become more obvious, the Sabres will continue to occupy the bottom half of the NHL power rankings.