Young Winger Quinn Must Make Most Of His Opportunities

The NHL’s 2025-26 season has just about arrived, and here on THN.com’s Buffalo Sabres site, we’re continuing our player-by-player series in which we break down the expectations for each Buffalo player in the coming season.

We’ve made our way in this series through the Sabres’ goalies, defensemen and the first two lines of forwards. And in today’s file, we’re analyzing Buffalo winger Jack Quinn, who is kicking off Year 1 of a two-year contract extension that is a significant bump in pay over what Quinn had been making.

But let’s focus right now on the current expectations for Quinn in ‘25-26, and whether he’s likely to meet or exceed them.

Player Name: Jack Quinn

Position: Left Wing

Age: 23

2024-25 Key Statistics: 74 games, 15 goals, 39 points, 14:52 average time-on-ice

2025-26 Salary: $3.375 million

2025-26 Expectations: In three NHL seasons, Quinn has hinted at being an above-average player, posting 15 goals and 39 points in 74 games last season – slightly better than his full-first-year numbers of 14 goals and 37 points in 75 games in 2022-23 – and he’s been given a bridge deal of sorts by Sabres GM Kevyn Adams to build himself into a long-term core component for the organization.

Quinn’s rather limited time-on-ice last season could be pointed to by some with the idea that if he gets more minutes, his point totals are going to rise significantly. Sabres coaching and management members may agree with that notion. But when the season begins, it’s likely that Quinn is going to be on Buffalo’s third line, with center Jiri Kulich and right winger Jordan Greenway, the latter of who isn’t known as a big-time point producer.

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All of which is to say that Quinn may need to be more of a play-finisher than a playmaker this year. But his significant raise (from $863,334 last season to $3.375-million for this year and next year) carries with it increased expectations. And given that injuries limited Quinn to only 27 games in 2023-24 – with two serious injuries in the same season – he can’t afford another injury. That’s true for all players, but some more than others are under particular pressure to stay healthy, and Quinn is one of them.

As the eighth-overall draft pick in 2020, the 23-year-old Quinn needs to live up to the hype in a way that hasn’t happened yet. He’ll begin the season in limited minutes once again, but it would be to management’s delight if he did enough damage on offense to warrant a bump up the depth chart and more playing opportunities. It’s entirely up to Quinn to dictate what his future is going to look like, so nothing short of a new set of career-highs on offense has to be something he’s capable of if he’s going to remain a Sabre over the long haul.

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The NHL’s 2025-26 season is nearly upon us, and here at THN.com’s Buffalo Sabres site, we’re continuing our player-by-player series in which we break down expectations for each Sabres player this season. We’ve looked at Buffalo’s goalies and defensemen, and in this latest column, we’re turning our attention to veteran winger Jason Zucker.

If he isn’t, Quinn is going to languish on the third line, and at his new price tag, there may not be many teams stepping up to acquire him when they can wait a year and sign him to a more production-appropriate salary beginning in 2027. But if he does step up and the Sabres get back into the playoffs, Quinn’s salary could be seen as a first-rate bargain.

Time will tell what the road forward will look like for Quinn, but he enters 2025-26 with a decent number of opportunities from Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. The way he responds to them will help shape his destiny as an NHLer.