Well, the way I see Buffalo this season...
Staal pickup was okay, he struggled in the second half of the season and is 35, I think being a 2C is better for him, but I don't know if I expect him to be a huge difference maker. Him and Skinner did not have good chemistry together from what I've seen from Carolina fans.
Eakin and Rieder are junk, shouldn't have been signed. There were better value UFAs available. Still out there though, I think that might be Buffalo's preferred option to go for the Granlunds, Hoffmans, rather than trade for Johnson. They might be a suitor for Killorn though, I do think that would be a good pickup for Buffalo.
Obviously Taylor Hall is still a great offensive top line winger and you don't know what Hall you're gonna get, the Hart trophy winner or him vs Colorado in the playoffs this summer. Wouldn't be too surprised if he bounces back.
Olofsson is not a good 5v5 player, and actually hurt Eichel's offensive impact when they play together last season. He's a power play specialist, I don't want to compare him to Martin Frk, I think Olofsson can reach 40-45 pts in an 82 game season with ample opportunity, I just am not convinced he's a top 6 player on a playoff team.
Skinner needs to bounce back for the Sabres' sake obviously, but kwe're likely not seeing a 40 goal scorer ever again. I do think a fair amount of bounceback is expected given his resume in the NHL, and I do think 20 goals, 50 pts-ish is reasonable. But that contract is hard to live up to.
But they didn't improve their defense enough, and you're just banking on Dahlin taking it to the next level (who hopefully is not in Kruger's doghouse all season) and Miller having a bounceback year. A lot of teams got better defensively, and it being a big weakness last season, they really need to improve there to make the playoffs.
Goaltending is volatile, obviously Hutton can bounce back or Ullmark can continue the strong season at even strength he had last season, but was it a fluke? I like Ullmark, I personally think he'll be another .910 ish starter for them. But to make the playoffs with the proposed division, they'll need to have a lot go their way.