​John Davidson’s previous stops in St. Louis, New York and Columbus (twice) proved attractive for the Buffalo Sabres.GM Jarmo Kekäläinen announced the addition of Davidson as a Senior Adviser late afternoon on Monday. Davidson is an NHL lifer, first as a goaltender with the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues. He later served as a broadcaster for MSG Networks as an analyst on New York Rangers television broadcasts.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAs an executive, he has served as a team president in St. Louis, Columbus and New York. Most recently, he was serving in a diminished role as a senior adviser to GM Don Waddell in Columbus.John Davidson has been part of some extremely consequential moves in his time in NHL front offices, including supervising Kekäläinen during the late 2000’s when the latter was an assistant GM in St. Louis. That was the start of their relationship.“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.”That strong working relationship carried over to Columbus, where the veteran executive brought in Kekäläinen as GM in 2012. Columbus’s longest sustained period of success in franchise history was built by their combined vision. Consequently, the two made significant contributions to the drafting history of both St. Louis and Columbus, including Alex Pietrangelo in 2008 and Zach Werenski in 2015.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHe joins the Buffalo Sabres front office with the goal of trying to avoid a projected step back following an off-season of changes for the Atlantic Division winner.John Davidson now becomes the third member of Buffalo’s front office with general manager experience. He served as an interim GM in Columbus in 2023-24. Marc Bergevin, former Montreal Canadiens GM, is an associate GM in Buffalo.Davidson’s second stint in Columbus likely won’t be remembered as fondly as his first. The Jackets improved, but mostly failed to recapture the magic of the original Davidson-Kekäläinen era.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOne of the earliest moves made in their second stint together in Columbus was to hire embattled head coach Mike Babcock, who has had multiple players speak publicly about their distaste for the hard-edged Stanley Cup-winning coach.That move did not end well for the duo. Babcock was the subject of an investigation into invading the privacy of his players, and he never made it to training camp. The Jackets hired Pascal Vincent with little time to spare before preseason. Columbus labored to a second straight season of winning fewer than 30 games. As a result, the Jackets ultimately finished 27-43-12. The Jackets fired Kekäläinen midseason. They fi