Making impactful adjustments continues to be a hallmark of Jason Zucker’s game.
For 14 NHL seasons, Zucker, currently in his second campaign with the Buffalo Sabres, has repeatedly adjusted his role depending on team needs, a major reason he’s remained an effective and trusted contributor at both ends of the ice.
He’s relied on it to great effect during his time in Buffalo, highlighted by back-to-back 20-goal seasons.
“I think for me a lot of it has been about finding ways to stay relevant and stay competitive and continue to add value to your team,” Zucker told NHLPA.com. “That has been different from the last couple years than it was when I was earlier in my career.
“It's turned into a little bit more leadership stuff and handling more of the team things and aspects outside the rink. It’s been really fun for me. It's obviously a change, but overall, it's balancing adding the value on the ice and being a good player for the team off the ice.”
Zucker has done it with zeal.
In 55 games this season, the speedy forward has 22 goals and 17 assists. But his contributions go well beyond personal stat lines. Buffalo is on the cusp of clinching their first trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011.
“I think our number one identity is our speed,” said Zucker, who came to the Sabres as a free agent in 2024, before re-signing with the club last March. “I think the speed that we can play with as a team is really tough on opponents. It's one of those things that makes it really hard to compete with us on a night-to-night basis. We're playing our strength and continuing to put teams under stress and making it tough on them.”
Zucker, who has 52 games of NHL playoff experience, saw the Sabres’ strengths play out from a unique, but unwanted vantage point, earlier in the season.
Out of the lineup due to a lower-body injury, the California-born forward watched his teammates rally to beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in overtime on Dec. 9.
“I'm not sure I can say there's a single game that defined the season or showed what we were capable of,” recalled Zucker, a second-round draft pick of the Minnesota Wild in 2010. “We had that 10-game win streak that enabled us to understand how good of a team we can be. Unfortunately, I missed all 10 of those games with an injury.
“I think that Edmonton game when I look back from when I was watching, which was the first game I missed, that ended up being a win in overtime after being down a couple of goals and honestly, not playing that well, I think that was a bit of a springboard. Prior to that, we had some tough meetings as a team and a leadership group leading up to that week. So, it was where we were kind of prepping ourselves for the ability to move forward.”
Zucker and his teammates haven’t looked back since.
The players aren’t the only ones enjoying the ride.
“The city is absolutely buzzing right now. It's been really fun to see that everybody is really excited. The arena is rocking every single game, the fans are just amazing and having a great time, so it's been really fun to see that aspect of things.
“It's been really fun to be a part of it. I've heard so much about how great a hockey town this city is. It's easy to kind of push that stuff off when you hear it just because you haven't seen it yourself, but now that we're in this position, they're absolutely right. The fans have been rock stars.”
Zucker, who played in his 800th regular-season game on Jan. 20, is hoping for an encore performance come playoff time.
He doesn’t expect the approach to change for himself or the group once the post-season puck drops.
“The biggest key is trying not to do things too differently. For me, individually, there's not a whole lot I try to change. You might get a little bit more treatment, an extra bit of time for a nap every day, but ultimately, you know what you're doing and what got you to where you are, so you’ve got to keep that routine rolling as well as you can.
“We feel we're in a good place. We're happy with where we're at, but we're not satisfied with it and we just have to keep working, keep getting better.”
An approach that Zucker is quite familiar with.
“It's kind of crazy when you look back on your career, how fast it goes,” said the left-winger who has also played with Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Arizona and Nashville.
“You start seeing the young kids that you're in the locker room with that are closer in age to your children than they are to you. It changes your perspective on all of it, but that’s what makes it so fun again – it is all part of the adjustment, going from where you were, to what you are now. It’s really fun.”