Players Who Can Replace Tuch and Byram’s Goals
Heading into the 2026-27 season, one of the biggest questions surrounding the Buffalo Sabres has been about what was lost in the offseason. Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram departed the Sabres, taking 44 goals between them away from the fifth highest scoring team in the NHL last season. So how are the Sabres going to replace that scoring? Could Thompson find a way to get to 50 this year? If Norris plays more games, does he get more than 13 goals? Peyton Krebs is playing on the top line, could he get to twenty? Those are just a few players that initially jumped off the page to help replace offence, but upon closer look, I found five easy candidates to improve their goal scoring from 2025-26. Buckle up, there is math involved.
Jack Quinn
Every fan and Sabres internet commentator (me included) has circled Quinn as the number one forward to have a breakout year for Buffalo. His own coach believes he may have left 15 or so goals on the table last season. So the expectations from Ruff, fans, and probably Quinn himself are high for 2026-27. Let’s be conservative though, let’s say he only finds 10 more goals this year. A 30 goal season would help Quinn secure a serious payday and go a long way towards replacing some of Alex Tuch’s production from the wing last year.
44 - 10 = 34 goals to find
Zach Benson
Zach Benson became a cult hero with an outstanding playoff run with the Sabres. Crowned the rat king of Buffalo, Benson’s game drives opponents nuts. To truly be a rat king and live under the skin of the competition, Benson will need to find the net more in the regular season. His 5 goals in 13 playoff games suggests there is a chance for a serious bump in Regular season production. If Benson played 84 games and scored at the same rate, he’d be looking at approximately 32 goals on the year. That seems high for a forward currently slated as the third line winger. With Ostlund and Quinn also on the line, there is only so much puck to share and Benson’s play making is where he excels. So let’s bump him down to just 20 goals on the year, which is still a great number for a forward with a long runaway in front of him with blue and gold
34 - 7 = 27 Goals to find
Noah Ostlund
Rounding out the reported third line by Daily Faceoff is centre Noah Ostlund, who is fresh off signing an extension that keeps him with the Sabres for the foreseeable future. He is still on his entry level deal for this season, so expecting a mind blowing break out may be too lofty this year. If anything, the goal should be playing as close to 84 games as possible for Ostlund. If he accomplishes that, I have no doubt the offence follows. 20 goals is a nice round number, and Ostlund would only have to score nine more goals to get there over his 25/26 total.
27 - 9 = 18 Goals to find
Jiri Kulich
This is the biggest wildcard for the Sabres. Jiri Kulich’s much publicized return from the blood clots that limited him to just 12 games last year, the majority of which he was far from feeling his best, has been the talk of training camp and pre-season. He will score more than three goals this year, but how many more is the question. There was talk of him starting the year in Rochester, there was talk of him centering the top line. The truth is Kulich will be operating somewhere in the middle. Once he finds his home on this team, I believe scoring goals will follow. Is 20 goals too much to expect? Maybe, but I would be far from surprised if he exceeds 20 goals this year. Let’s LIGHTLY pencil Kulich in for a 17 goal increase in a healthy year.
18 - 17 = 1 goal to find
Olen Zellweger
I started writing this ahead of pre-season. After the Sabres played Columbus and Zellweger was knocked out of the game, I started to scramble. Health is the number one thing that could derail all of this conjecture. Thankfully, Coach Lindy Ruff told reporters that he believes Zellweger is going to be ready for the start of the season. Before taking the hit from Soucy, Zellweger was absolutely dancing, paired with Owen Power the Sabres second per-season game, just as Bo Byram was. In 76 contests with the Anaheim Ducks last year, Zellweger found the back of the net seven times. It doesn’t feel crazy to think he could hit double digits, especially with the way the Sabres like their defence to jump into the play. But let's be conservative, let’s say Zellweger only gets eight goals for the Sabres. That is still more than enough to cover the lost production of Tuch and Byram.
1 - 8 = 7 extra goals found!
Who do you see replacing the goal hole left by Tuch and Byram? Are you worried about any Sabres players regressing?
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