John Davidson’s previous stops in St. Louis, New York and Columbus (twice) proved attractive for the Buffalo Sabres.
GM Jarmo Kekäläinen announced the addition of Davidson as a Senior Adviser late afternoon on Monday. Davidson is an NHL lifer, first as a goaltender with the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues. He later served as a broadcaster for MSG Networks as an analyst on New York Rangers television broadcasts.
As an executive, he has served as a team president in St. Louis, Columbus and New York. Most recently, he was serving in a diminished role as a senior adviser to GM Don Waddell in Columbus.
John Davidson has been part of some extremely consequential moves in his time in NHL front offices, including supervising Kekäläinen during the late 2000’s when the latter was an assistant GM in St. Louis. That was the start of their relationship.
“John and I have a strong working relationship that we have developed over many years. His experience leading multiple organizations, combined with his player evaluation skills and relationships around the NHL make him a great fit for this role. He will lend his expertise and guidance to all areas within the hockey department as we aim to continue to improve our club.”
What does Buffalo get in John Davidson?
That strong working relationship carried over to Columbus, where the veteran executive brought in Kekäläinen as GM in 2012. Columbus’s longest sustained period of success in franchise history was built by their combined vision. Consequently, the two made significant contributions to the drafting history of both St. Louis and Columbus, including Alex Pietrangelo in 2008 and Zach Werenski in 2015.
He joins the Buffalo Sabres front office with the goal of trying to avoid a projected step back following an off-season of changes for the Atlantic Division winner.
John Davidson now becomes the third member of Buffalo’s front office with general manager experience. He served as an interim GM in Columbus in 2023-24. Marc Bergevin, former Montreal Canadiens GM, is an associate GM in Buffalo.
John Davidson’s recent history is checkered.
Davidson’s second stint in Columbus likely won’t be remembered as fondly as his first. The Jackets improved, but mostly failed to recapture the magic of the original Davidson-Kekäläinen era.
One of the earliest moves made in their second stint together in Columbus was to hire embattled head coach Mike Babcock, who has had multiple players speak publicly about their distaste for the hard-edged Stanley Cup-winning coach.
That move did not end well for the duo. Babcock was the subject of an investigation into invading the privacy of his players, and he never made it to training camp. The Jackets hired Pascal Vincent with little time to spare before preseason. Columbus labored to a second straight season of winning fewer than 30 games. As a result, the Jackets ultimately finished 27-43-12. The Jackets fired Kekäläinen midseason. They fired Vincent upon the season’s conclusion. Ownership demoted John Davidson into an advisory role and hired former Carolina Hurricanes GM Don Waddell.
Buffalo’s next chapter is a curious one.
The Sabres are one of the NHL’s most fascinating teams. Ownership fired GM Kevyn Adams and replaced him with Kekäläinen in December amidst a pedestrian 14-14-4 start to the season. Without any other changes, the team got hot. Buffalo went 36-9-5 the rest of the way. They won the Atlantic Division. They also won a playoff series for the first time since 2007.
Real weaknesses — particularly in net — emerged in their seven-game loss to the Montreal Canadiens in the Atlantic Division Finals. The Sabres have been connected to goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, but no trade has been finalized.
This summer, the Sabres extended long-term contract extensions to forward Zach Benson (seven years), forward Beck Malenstyn (six years) and forward Peyton Krebs (four years). They also traded defenseman Bowen Byram and winger Jordan Greenway, primarily for premium future assets. Winger Alex Tuch priced himself out of an extension with his hometown team, ultimately resulting in a sign-and-trade with the Washington Capitals.
This honeymoon period has likely been nice for Kekäläinen. The team’s almost unprecedented midseason change of course allowed him to spend more time evaluating. As a result, it should be clear that the Sabres are now his team.
Jarmo Kekäläinen, John Davidson and Marc Bergevin now have a mandate to deliver success. Moreover, Sabres fans won’t tolerate this success-starved franchise taking a major step back after finally tasting it in 2026.
It wouldn’t be wise to test them on that.
Buffalo Adds Veteran Executive to Front Office