Some players in that group came up through the American Hockey League together as Rochester Americans, while some came from other organizations in the National Hockey League to form the right mix of players.

Following the lockout that forced the cancellation of the 2004-05 NHL season, the Sabres went 52-24-0-1 in 2005-06 en route to 110 points during the regular season. After beating No. 5 Philadelphia in the first round, the fourth-seeded Sabres beat top-seeded Ottawa in the second round. That set up an Eastern Conference finals showdown with No. 2 Carolina and Buffalo suffered through catastrophic injuries to its defense before losing in Game 7.

The following year, the Sabres put together an even better regular season that saw them win the Presidents’ Trophy with 113 points. As the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, Buffalo beat the eighth-seeded Islanders in the first round and the sixth-seeded Rangers in the second round. Another appearance in the Eastern Conference finals spelled the end of the Sabres’ season as they lost to No. 4 Ottawa.

Ruff was eventually fired during the 2012-13 season and Buffalo is still in the midst of a 13-season playoff drought that began during his first tenure.

With a large contract and a no-movement clause, it remains to be seen if Jeff Skinner fits into Lindy Ruff’s plans. AP photo

Despite that, the veteran head coach feels like this Sabres roster has the ingredients for a fast turnaround that could see them in the postseason as early as next spring.

Here’s why:

GOALTENDING

Many so-called “experts” feel Ruff’s time in New Jersey was cut short because the Devils didn’t have good enough goaltending — especially this season.

When asked what he liked about Buffalo’s goaltending situation Tuesday, Ruff gave a three-letter answer: UPL.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is developing into a bona-fide No. 1 goaltender in the NHL as evidenced by his five shutouts this season that tied for the league lead. He also posted a .910 save percentage and a 2.57 goals against average.

Ironically, the goaltender in Buffalo’s system that most closely compares to Ryan Miller — the Sabres’ Vezina-winning goaltender in 2010 — is probably Devon Levi.

Like Miller, who won the Hobey Baker Award in 2001 and posted 26 career shutouts during his collegiate hockey upbringing at Michigan State University, Levi was brought up through the college ranks at Northeastern University and won back-to-back Mike Richter Awards given to the top goaltender in college hockey.

Luukkonen is the unquestioned No. 1 goaltender going into the 2024-25 season, but is a restricted free agent currently, and if for some reason is not around Buffalo long term, the Sabres can feel comfortable with Levi’s development in Rochester mirroring that of Miller’s over a decade ago.

FORWARDS

While there might not be mirror-image comparisons at forward and defense like there are for Miller and Levi in net, several current Sabres share qualities to which Ruff was alluding.

Alex Tuch, like Chris Drury, came from a successful franchise and took on a leadership role in bringing the Sabres to the next level. Drury entered the league with the Colorado Avalanche in the late 1990s and even won the Stanley Cup in 2003, while Tuch made the playoffs every year of his professional career with Vegas and played in the Finals his rookie year.

Arguably the biggest offensive piece for Ruff back in the day was Thomas Vanek, the fifth overall pick in the 2003 draft. Tage Thompson is revered the same way with the current team. While they approached it from different areas on the ice, both Vanek and Thompson are the keys to a successful power play and special teams, who are counted on most by their teammates when a big goal is needed.

Jeff Skinner draws comparisons to both Drew Stafford and Maxim Afinogenov as a player that could pile up a lot of points, but also could find himself in Ruff’s doghouse with his style of play. On the other hand, Dylan Cozens is a lot like a player Ruff loved during his first tenure: Jason Pominville. Cozens is a dedicated 200-foot player, who could find himself scoring timely goals just like Pominville.

Zach Benson and Derek Roy are similar as smaller, skilled guys that provide great secondary scoring behind the big guns of the team.

As far as career trajectory goes, Tim Connolly and Jack Quinn share a lot in common as two highly skilled forwards that were top-10 selections in the draft, but faced several injuries.

Paul Gaustad and Zemgus Girgensons share a lot of qualities as big and physical depth forwards that don’t bring a ton of points to the lineup, but an elemental much needed.

During his re-introductory press conference, Ruff mentioned the need for players on the roster to “lean” on other teams. Jordan Greenway has one year remaining on his contract and could provide that, albeit for a higher price than Adam Mair, Andrew Peters and others, who did it during Ruff’s first go-round.

Daniel Briere was obviously a huge part of Buffalo’s success during its back-to-back 100-point seasons. There are players on the current roster we’ve already mentioned that could provide his scoring and leadership, but the Sabres also have a deep, talented prospect pool with Matthew Savoie, Noah Ostlund and Jiri Kulich all players drafted in the first round of the 2022 draft who will likely make a huge impact in the very near future. Buffalo’s management team has to feel like at least one of those players can approach the levels Briere did during his time with the Sabres.

DEFENSE

On defense, the current Sabres have arguably more talent than they ever did in the early-to-mid-2000s with No. 1 picks Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power leading a corps that includes No. 4 pick Bowen Byram and second-rounder Mattias Samuelsson, who at times has showed he can also be a top-end defender, but has also suffered from the injury bug.

While Brian Campbell wasn’t nearly as highly thought of as Dahlin when he entered the NHL, he turned into Buffalo’s power-play quarterback and an all-star during his time with the Sabres. For purposes of this exercise, he’s the closest comparison to Dahlin on the high-powered teams of 05-06 and 06-07.

The hope is that Samuelsson can be as reliable of a defender as McKee was for Ruff during his early coaching days. Like Samuelsson, McKee ran into injury troubles during the 2002-03 season and 03-04 seasons. He returned to play nearly a full season in 2005-06, but infamously missed Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Carolina Hurricanes with a staph infection thought to have been the result of a blocked shot earlier in the series. Here’s hoping Samuelsson’s injury woes are behind him and he can develop into as reliable of a defender as McKee.

Toni Lydman and Henrik Tallinder were as close to a “shutdown” defensive pair as the Sabres had back in the day. Lydman was an underappreciated puck mover, who didn’t contribute on the offensive end nearly as much as Buffalo hopes Byram will. Power is also a much more talented offensive player than Tallinder was. The hope is that the two can develop their defensive games to be an even more impressive duo than Lydman and Tallinder were.

The Sabres have two more years on Connor Clifton’s contract and while the deal didn’t seem great at the start of the season, the former Boston Bruin was a pleasant surprise as the 2023-24 season wore on. Jaroslav Spacek was a veteran the 06-07 Sabres brought in to replace McKee and Clifton is approaching Spacek in terms of importance heading into next season as a physical presence who can also provide a little offense.

Dmitri Kalinin was another blueliner back in the day who was probably underappreciated at the time. Currently, the Sabres have a player in Henri Jokiharju, who has seemingly been underappreciated by fans and may actually be gone this offseason as a restricted free agency who may not fit into Buffalo’s financial plans. Ryan Johnson is probably next in line in the organization to take those minutes should Jokiharju leave.

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Obviously, there are no perfect comparisons when looking at a team from 20 years ago. Some of the current Sabres fit the mold better than others, but also Ruff has changed in the past 20 years. He may not need the same types of players to fit his system today that he did during his first head coaching stop.

Things are bleak in Sabreland after missing the playoffs for 13 years, but the current group of talented players has the ability to get the franchise back into the playoffs and fill KeyBank Center for a Stanley Cup run under Ruff’s tutelage.