Immediately after completing trade, Buffalo Sabres announce legendary hire

Davidson brings two decades in NHL front offices, including president of hockey operations roles in St. Louis, Columbus and the New York Rangers.

The résumé is real, but the detail Buffalo buried is the relationship.

Davidson is the executive who made Jarmo Kekäläinen the first European general manager in NHL history.

Back in February 2013, Davidson ran hockey operations in Columbus and chose Kekäläinen to run his roster. Kekäläinen rewarded that faith with the most successful era in Blue Jackets history.

The story took a hard turn in February 2024, when Columbus fired Kekäläinen and Davidson stepped in as interim general manager. The mentor, briefly, became the replacement.

Now the wheel has turned again. Kekäläinen runs Buffalo, and Davidson is joining as his advisor, reporting to the man whose career he launched thirteen years ago.

This is not a nostalgia hire or a ceremonial title. Davidson has rebuilt front offices before, and Buffalo just won the Atlantic Division and claimed its first playoff series win since 2007 under coach Lindy Ruff.

Kekäläinen does not need a boss. He needs someone who has navigated the exact pressure now sitting on his desk, and few people know his instincts better than the man who hired him.

There is a quieter Buffalo thread, too. Davidson once took a puck to the mask against the Sabres in a 1970s playoff series, the moment that inspired Foreigner's "Double Vision."

Half a century later, he arrives in Western New York entirely on purpose, joining a partnership that has already survived a hiring, a firing and a full reunion.

This time, the advisor and the boss have simply traded chairs, with the balance of power flipped.

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