Ex-Rangers president, goalie, broadcaster John Davidson joins Sabres
John Davidson, whose lengthy hockey career includes stints with the New York Rangers as a player, broadcaster and executive, joined the Buffalo Sabres on Monday as a senior adviser.
The move reunites him with Sabres general manager Jarmo Kekalainen. The two worked together with the Columbus Blue Jackets, where Kekalainen was GM from 2013-24. Davidson was president of the Blue Jackets from October 2012 and hired Kekalainen as GM in February 2013.
Davidson left the Blue Jackets on May 17, 2019, and joined the Rangers as president two days later. The Rangers fired him on May 5, 2021, and he rejoined the Blue Jackets as president and alternate governor 15 days later. Davidson added the GM role when he fired Kekalainen in May 2024, then transitioned to a senior adviser role in Columbus after Don Waddell was hired as GM and president of hockey operations.
The Sabres hired Kekalainen as GM after Kevyn Adams was fired in December 2025.
“I am thrilled to welcome John Davidson to the Sabres as a senior advisor,” Kekäläinen said. “John and I have a strong working relationship that we have developed over many years. His experience leading multiple organizations, combined with his player evaluation skills and relationships around the NHL make him a great fit for this role. He will lend his expertise and guidance to all areas within the hockey department as we aim to continue to improve our club.”
Davidson and the Rangers have a long relationship, going back to when he was acquired in the summer of 1975 from the St. Louis Blues, who had taken him in the first round (No. 5) of the 1973 NHL Draft.
He was supposed to share the goaltending job with Ed Giacomin. But after the Rangers waived Giacomin in October 1975, Davidson became the nominal starter, though he never played more than 41 games in any season.
By far Davidson’s most memorable moment with the Rangers came in 1979, when he led them to the Stanley Cup Final against the Montreal Canadiens. J.D. was the biggest reason they got to the Final; his goaltending carried the Blueshirts to a six-game upset of the regular-season champion New York Islanders in the Semifinals.
“As the final seconds were counting down, it was the loudest I remember the Garden,” he said in a 2006 interview about Game 6, a 2-1 victory at Madison Square Garden that sent the Rangers to the Final for the first time in seven years. “I know the players who won [the Stanley Cup] in 1994 probably feel that was the loudest they ever heard the Garden, but for me, this was the loudest. It was kind of unexpected.
“The Rangers went into the playoffs as underdogs. I had been hurt and didn’t know how I was going to play and didn’t finish the season strong. Then we got on a bit of a roll. We beat (Los Angeles) in the first round and (Philadelphia) in the second round and ended up against the Islanders. … It’s my fondest memory, without question, of the (Garden).”
John Davidson had long career with Rangers, involving many roles
But there was talk during the Final that Davidson had been playing with an injured knee. Unfortunately for the Rangers, it proved to be more than talk. By 1982-83, his playing career was over.
However, his time with the Rangers was not.
Davidson joined MSG Network’s hockey coverage staff in 1983. He became the color commentator for Rangers games from 1986–87 to 2005–06, working mostly with Sam Rosen. He became one of best-known and most-respected TV analysts in the sport.
He was in the broadcast booth when the Rangers ended their 54-year Stanley Cup drought in 1994 by defeating the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Game 7 of the Final at the Garden. Davidson’s reaction: “No more 1940, it’s gone!”
Davidson also contributed to NHL coverage on CBC, FOX, ESPN/ABC, NBC, SportsChannel America, and Global. He served as the lead color commentator alongside play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick, for the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, the NHL on Fox from 1994–99, and again for the NHL on NBC and NHL on OLN from 2005–06.
Emrick and Davidson shared the 2004 Lester Patrick Trophy for service to hockey in the United States. He also earned induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame as the 2009 recipient of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award.
Davidson augmented his senior adviser role by returning to the TV booth to broadcast select Blue Jackets games starting in October 2024. He returned to the booth with Rosen on April 9, 2025, in honor of his longtime partner’s final season calling Rangers games.
