Try to think of anyone who owns two expensive things of more wildly different value than Terry Pegula of the Buffalo Bills and Sabres.
It must be like owning your own island that just so happens to include a shack so moldy it's too dangerous to tear down. Consider going from Josh Allen's Hall of Fame pyrotechnics to a team suffering through a 14-year playoff drought and a painful recent history of watching exes flourish. The whiplash has to be agonizing.
Adjusting to life without Mitch Marner could be tricky for the Leafs if Detroit, Montreal, and Ottawa all take predictable steps forward while Florida and Tampa Bay possess better high-end talent. Things would get downright scary if Boston rebounds and the Sabres ... finally don't look like the Sabres.
Expecting much from this franchise is foolish; just ask their hard-luck fans. Buffalo even becoming a tougher out could make Toronto's trek to the playoffs pretty bumpy, though.
One sentence to describe Sabres' 2025 offseason
General manager Kevyn Allen sacrificed some goal-scoring in hopes of preventing more of them.
Buffalo's biggest addition heading into the 2025-26 season
As usual, this is a team that's heavy on left-handed defensemen. Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power lead the way, Bowen Byram is still around, and maybe there's still faint hope that Mattias Samuelsson isn't a total albatross. Buffalo's hoping for a big boost in balance from right-handed defenseman Michael Kesselring.
Here and there, he's shown flashes of potential to become a top-four defenseman. Last season was his best with the franchise now known as the Utah Mammoth, as the 25-year-old generated career-highs in points (29) and average time on ice (17:41 minutes per game).
Power's pairing mates were all over the place last season, so expect Kesselring to get plenty of looks on that right side. That said, it's also possible that Dahlin and Byram get split up, too. We'll find out if Kesselring can deliver on a golden opportunity. The Sabres sorely need him to.
Did they take a big step back trading Peterka?
If you look at the simplest stats, the Sabres took a big step back this offseason. Kesselring and Josh Doan fall far short of the offense of JJ Peterka, who tied Dahlin for second on the Sabres with 68 points.
Of course, as Jon Cooper once said of Jonathan Drouin, "there's more than one net in the rink." Both teams generate a lot of offense with Peterka on the ice, and things skewed too much in the wrong direction for Buffalo's taste in 2024-25.
The 23-year-old won't be confused for former Sabres Selke fixtures Ryan O'Reilly, Sam Reinhart, or Jack Eichel, yet this trade could really sting if he's the latest to flourish after leaving western New York.
Other Sabres moves of note
Technically, the Sabres traded Dylan Cozens for Josh Norris during last season's deadline. Considering Norris' injury issues and a lack of offseason additions down the middle, this is the first true test of that surprising trade.
While Buffalo dreams of Norris surviving as a No.1 center, the painful question is whether he'd even be a particularly strong No. 2 on a credible contender. Even if he proves them right, the 26-year-old also must prove he can actually stay on the ice.
Adding players such as Kesselring and Josh Doan revolves around playing a more complete defensive game and hopefully making life easier for their goalies.
That's of extra importance because of injury questions surrounding Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen, who struggled last season. Buffalo supplemented the position with the depth combo of Alex Lyon and Alexandar Georgiev, at least giving them some experienced bodies.
Will Buffalo be better or worse this season?
For most franchises, you'd expect the law of averages to balance things out eventually. The Sabres aren't most franchises. Plenty of odds are on their side, but what are the odds on a team suffering through a 14-year playoff drought in a league of such parity?
Zach Benson and Jiri Kulich could jump a level, as could Power, but how far? Dahlin and Tage Thompson could easily deliver even better results, yet it's also possible that core players from other East teams will improve in parallel.
With only subtle improvements, Buffalo's betting on a lot of improvement from within, leaving them firmly in "believe it when we see it" territory.
Long-term outlook
Dahlin is 25, Power is 22, and Tage Thompson is still merely 27. You could absolutely do worse than that core of talent, all cost-controlled for multiple seasons.
Still, considering this perpetual rebuild, it's troubling that there aren't a ton of obvious additional gamebreakers waiting in the wings. It's hard to imagine any high-level free agent signing with Buffalo, and plenty of players will include this grim shell of a franchise on their no-trade lists.
Despite all of that doom and gloom, there's enough here for Buffalo to be a nuisance for a Maple Leafs team with a shrinking margin for error. Leafs fans should cross their fingers for the same old sad Sabres.