Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The NHL Trade Deadline has come and gone, and while the Buffalo Sabres moved on from a few pieces ahead of Friday's deadline, the team did lock up one of their key depth pieces up front.
The Sabres announced a new contract extension on Friday for veteran winger Jason Zucker, who is set to remain in Buffalo through the 2026-27 season while making $4.75 million per-season.
Over his 14 seasons in the NHL, Zucker has spent time with five teams, each with their own set of circumstances in a given season. With this Sabres team going forward, Zucker feels it starts with learning how to win, and learning how to win the little things in a game.
"Knowing when you can go try a play through the middle, knowing who you're on the ice against, if that's a smart idea or not, the turnovers, the little plays that give the other team a little bit of life. I think we've done that too much this year," said Zucker during an appearance with the "Jeremy and Joe Show" on Tuesday. "When you look at the 4-0 game versus Colorado [Avalanche], you look at some of the games that we've blown leads, a lot of it was handing the other team chances and giving them a little bit of life, and making it tougher on ourselves. That's one of the biggest learning curves for us, is just learning how to win in those aspects of the game. It's not the skill anymore. We have the skill, we know how to use it. It's just a matter of learning all the rest of the aspects of the game to help us win."
One of the main roadblocks to success for the Sabres this season has been their special teams play, particularly on the power play. To start the season, the Sabres didn't score a single power play goal on their first 23 attempts. Since then, they've only scored 30 power play goals on 181 attempts.
"Power plays, typically, for your best players, you feel like are time to make plays when realistically, I think a lot of the best power plays have a simplicity factor to them," Zucker explained with Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase. "I think when you look at the Tampa Bays [Lightning] of the world, when you look at Colorado, they're shooting a lot of pucks. They're moving to get somebody open to shoot a puck. It's not trying to make seam passes every single play, every time you touch the puck. It doesn't need to look fancy and end up on SportsCenter. You have an extra guy you need to just create little 2-on-1s, pull guys out of their positions on the [penalty kill] and try to attack. Once the only kill gets broken down, you have a heck of a lot better of a chance of scoring."
This past summer saw Zucker join the Sabres on a one-year deal. Throughout the 2024-25 campaign, there was much speculation whether the 33-year-old would re-sign with the team next season, or be dealt near the NHL Trade Deadline.
"You go through phases of your career, of course, but I think for me, it was exciting. I didn't know where I was going to slot it in the lineup. I didn't know any of that," Zucker said of this season. "But seeing the young talent that was on this team was very enticing. The top-nine - everybody they had throughout that top-nine - getting Ryan McLeod, from 'Tommer' [Tage Thompson] to 'Tuchy' [Alex Tuch] and all the way down, there's a ton of talent. So I knew I was going to be playing with some great players, and that was a big piece. I think it's been a fun challenge for me, being the old guy and trying to help in that realm, but it's been a lot of fun on the ice."
As the Sabres' season draws to a close, the team is on track to miss the playoffs for a 14th-consecutive campaign. This has been the only talking point on the Sabres from a national perspective for quite sometime, and many are still speculating when the playoff drought will end, and what needs to change in order for that to happen.
Zucker says the team absolutely understands the fan base and their frustrations of wanting to be in the playoffs.
"We want it more than anybody else in the city does," he said. "It's frustrating when you go through these times, when you go through a 13-game [winless] streak, and you just can't figure it out. But it is always nice to have a fresh voice. It's always nice to change up the room a little bit. It's a tough part of the business, because you never want to lose your friends and your teammates.
"I heard nothing but amazing things about [Kyle] Okposo and [Zemgus] Girgensons and [Jeff] Skinner and that kind of leadership group that they had before. But sometimes it's just the way it works. You need to try something new. And that's not a knock on those guys, it's just the way the room works. That's why coaches get fired, that's why players get traded. Things obviously aren't working, but ultimately, there's only one team happy at the end of the year. Everyone else has tried to fix their team, and grow and get better and be ready for the following year."
The Sabres are back in action on Wednesday night in Detroit to take on the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena.
The game will be broadcasted on TNT, so the only place to catch Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray on the call is on the radio home of the Sabres - WGR Sports Radio 550.
Puck drop is slated for 7:30 p.m. with pregame starting at 6:30 p.m. with Mike Schopp and the Bulldog.