From six teams, to now 32 franchises, the NHL has seen their league grow over five times its size in just about 80 seasons of play. The 13th and 14th teams to join the league back in 1970 were the Vancouver Canucks and the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres have never been a team many others fear at the professional level. Since their introduction into the league in 1970, they have just six division championships, three conference championships and no Stanley Cup wins to show for their roughly 50 years of existence. Despite not having a great team history on the ice, their logos have always been some of the cleanest in the league.
Sports Logo History Buffalo Sabres Primary Logo 2021 - Present
Entering into the new decade, the Sabres have decided to give their logo another refresh for the sixth time in their 50 year history. The newest logo may look similar to Sabres fans old and young because it is modeled after their most recent logo and their first logo.
Comparing it to the logo used between 2010 - 2020, the old logo had a much darker shade of blue, and all parts of the logo, including the Buffalo, sabres, and the circle patch itself has outlined in a medium the shade of grey.
Going back to the first-ever logo used when the team was introduced into the NHL in 1970, that logo looks extremely similar to the current one the Sabres have introduced. The biggest difference is the darker shade of yellow in the new one, whereas the original franchise logo had a lighter yellow around the patch and at the handles of the sabres.
However, there is one thing that remains constant through every single logo in Sabres’ history. It is very subtle and many people may not catch it at first glance but for all six logos in Buffalo’s team history, the Buffalo itself has red-eye.
Buffalo Sabres Primary Logo 2011 - 2020
Yes, even back in the late ’90s and early 2000s when the Sabres changed their color scheme all together and moved it away from the traditional blue and yellow, that Buffalo still had prominent red-eye. In their 50 years of existence, red has been a part of their jersey’s for only 10 seasons between 1996 - 2006. Red has almost never been seen on their jersey’s since but it still remains a prominent part of the Buffalo Sabres identity.
See the Buffalo Sabres logo history and team history.