Veteran Winger Zucker Looked To For Cluch Offense

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.

This year, Zucker is entering the first season of a two-year contract extension. He obviously did enough last year to warrant his return to the Sabres, but even at a slight cut in salary, Zucker can still be a valuable contributor as Buffalo tries to end its 14-year Stanley Cup playoff drought. 

Let’s look at Zucker’s impact last year, and what is fair to expect from him in ’25-26:

Player Name: Jason Zucker

Position: Left Wing

Age: 33

2024-25 Key Statistics: 73 games, 21 goals, 53 points

2025-26 Salary: $4.75-million

2025-26 Expectations: Zucker has never been the most spectacular performer, but after a down season that saw him produce only 14 goals and 32 points in 2023-24, Zucker put up. 21 goals and 53 points in 73 games last year. For the mid-tier salary of $5-million, Zucker provided the secondary scoring the Sabres need from their veterans.

And this year, given that he’s taken a $250.000-pay cut to come back to Buffalo, you have to give him credit for putting his chips behind a Sabres team that direly needs a strong year in 2025-26.

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Zucker did get some no-trade protection in his contract extension with the Sabres, but for both seasons of his new two-year deal, Zucker will be able to veto a trade to only five teams of his choice. That leaves 26 teams Zucker can be traded to. So he’s hardly going to be able to stomp his feet and demand to stay in Buffalo if things don’t work out well.

Indeed, if the Sabres do fall out of the playoff picture once again — and so long as Zucker continues producing at a 20-goal pace — there will be a market for Zucker’s services. But that’s a worst-case scenario for him. The best-case is that he stays in Buffalo, the Sabres do rebound, and Zucker gets to 25 goals and 60 points. 

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If Zucker can be a thriving contributor on a Buffalo team that, against all odds, becomes a playoff team next year, the gamble the Sabres took on Zucker will be regarded as well worth it. But if by this time next year Buffalo is playing without Zucker, it will be because the experiment ended and Sabres management tried to make the most of him as a hockey asset and get a return for the future.

Zucker will almost assuredly be a 15-goal-scorer next season. But it’s that next level of five-to-10 goals that is separating Zucker from cementing his status in Buffalo from being on the move once again when the Sabres move in a different direction.