The Buffalo Sabres delivered Stanley Cup playoff hockey to their long-suffering fans this year, ending a decade-and-a-half playoff drought. But while the Sabres didn’t make the Eastern Conference final – losing to the Montreal Canadiens in Round 2 – Buffalo beat the Boston Bruins in Round 1, gaining valuable experience in the process.
But in our annual grading of the Sabres, TheHockeyNews.com’s 2025-26 grades will mostly be positive, as there was plenty for Sabres fans to appreciate. Whether it was young players evolving into Grade-A talent, or veterans delivering big-time performances, Buffalo got important contributions from many, if not most players. And that’s reflected in their grades.
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The Sabres have a ways to go before they’re a legitimate Cup front-runner like last year’s eventual-champion Carolina Hurricanes. However, for the first time in many years, everything meshed positively for Buffalo, and the Sabres elevated their playoff game to beat Boston.
And in this “Sabres Grades” file, we’re grading Buffalo’s best defenseman – superstar D-man and team captain Rasmus Dahlin:
Rasmus Dahlin
Position: Defenseman
Grade: A+
The Skinny: It’s hard to imagine how Dahlin could’ve been better for Buffalo last season. Dahlin posted 55 assists and a career-best 74 points in 77 games in 2025-26, and he averaged 24:10 of ice time. Those numbers are almost identical to Dahlin’s performance in 2024-25, when he generated 51 assists and 68 points in 73 games while averaging 24:14 of ice time. The consistency there is to marvel at.
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However, Dahlin also set a career-high in shooting percentage this past season, averaging 9.8 percent to beat his previous career-high of 8.5 percent. At 26 years old, the Swedish blueliner is entering his prime, and he’s doing so while earning $11-million for the next six seasons.
A salary that high carries with it sky-high expectations, but nobody in Buffalo is begrudging Dahlin his money. In fact, as the salary cap goes up and we see defensemen earn into the $16-to-$18-million-per-year range, Dahlin’s contract is going to be seen as a massive bargain for the Sabres.
There are precious few legitimate No. 1 defensemen in the league, but Dahlin certainly is one of them. Dahlin got his first taste of playoff hockey last season, and with 10 assists and 14 points – including six power-play points – in 13 games, Dahlin was a point-per-game post-season player. That’s exactly the type of performance Buffalo needed to get from him.
As Dahlin’s game continues maturing, his playoff experience last year is only going to help him and the Sabres. If Buffalo had’ve careened through the Atlantic Division rankings and missed the 2025-26 playoffs, we’d be having a very different conversation about Dahlin’s future in Western New York. But winning cures a lot of ailments, and it now looks like the best road ahead for Dahlin is remaining in Buffalo and serving as the Sabres’ bedrock for this generation of the team.
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Dahlin’s poise and patience are two of the things that led him to earning a nomination this past year for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman. Columbus Blue Jackets superstar blueliner Zach Werenski wound up winning this year’s Norris, but Dahlin deserved his nomination for the honor. And it now feels like, sooner or later, Dahlin is going to be claiming his first of what could be multiple Norris Trophies.
Although there may be room for Dahlin to grow his game, we’re of the opinion he’s already firing on all pistons. Dahlin’s vision, two-way game and overall impact on the Sabres is hard to measure strictly in data sets. When he’s on the ice, good things happen, and Dahlin’s challenge now is to raise his game when games matter most.
He can’t get a higher grade than the grade we’re giving him this year, but multiple A+ grades certainly aren’t out of the question for Dahlin. He’s a no-brainer foundational talent for Buffalo, and the Sabres are likely only going as far in the next decade as Dahlin and the rest of Buffalo’s core carries them.
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