The NHL’s 2025-26 season is close at hand, and here at THN.com’s Buffalo Sabres site, we're continuing our player-by-player series in which we analyze expectations for each Sabres player this coming year.
The Sabres need to get into the Stanley Cup playoffs, but as individuals, each Sabre has their own expectations to live up to.
We’ve made our way through Buffalo’s goalies and defensemen in this series. And in today's file, we’re breaking down Sabres second-line center Ryan McLeod, who is entering Year 1 of a four-year contract extension. McLeod is coming off a career-best year on offense, but Buffalo needs at least as much from him as he delivered in 2024-25. Let's shine the spotlight on McLeod and see how difficult it will be to clear the competitive bar he's set for himself.
Player Name: Ryan McLeod
Position: Center
Age: 25
2024-25 Key Statistics: 79 games, 20 goals, 53 points, 16:50 average time-on-ice
2025-26 Salary: $5-million
2025-26 Expectations: Slowly-but-surely, McLeod has been establishing himself as a valuable part of Buffalo's present and future. Last season, he posted career-highs in goals, assists and points. And now, as he begins his first year at a pay raise to $5-million per season, McLeod has to deal with heightened expectations.
As it stands, McLeod has been pencilled-in as Buffalo's second-line center, with veteran wingers Jason Zucker and Alex Tuch as his likely linemates. McLeod may not be a household name just yet, but he's one of Buffalo's core talents moving forward, and his contributions in the secondary scoring department will help decide how successful the Sabres are going to be next season.
McLeod is getting a more than 100 percent raise on his 2024-25 salary of $2.1-million, and while it's unfair and not realistic to expect his goal total will rise to 40 goals, it's well within the right of Sabres management to want to get 25-30 goals and between 60-70 points.
Ultimately, McLeod is going to hit a ceiling as a point-producer. However, he's still not in his prime just yet, and he has to demonstrate he's deserving of the investment Sabres GM Kevyn Adams has made in him. It's true that progress isn't always linear, but this is where Buffalo winning enough games to be a playoff team is so important. If the Sabres are winning their way into a wild card spot, it won't matter exactly how many goals and points McLeod generates.
And by the same metric, if the Sabres are losing more games than they're winning, it won't make a lick of difference how much offense McLeod puts up. He has to show Buffalo management they made the right decision to make him one of their core talents.
McLeod doesn't have any no-trade protection for the first two years of his current contract -- and even when he does, it's only a limited NTC that allows him to veto a trade to one of five teams of his choosing. If Buffalo isn't a playoff team this year, there's a decent chance he doesn't finish his contract as a Sabre.
But for now, at least, McLeod's destiny is in the hands of himself and his teammates. With a strong season as an individual and a key component for Buffalo, McLeod can count on job security in Western New York. And. without sustained success, he's probably going to be an ex-Sabre sooner or later.