Buffalo Sabres Partner With SprintAI to Build AI-Native Hockey Operations
The Buffalo Sabres and SprintAI are building an AI-native operating model for hockey operations, connecting performance data, workflows, and front-office decision support.
Multi-year agreement will connect player performance data, front-office intelligence, and hockey operations workflows through an agentic AI platform built for professional sports.
The Buffalo Sabres have signed a multi-year partnership with SprintAI to bring agentic artificial intelligence deeper into the club’s hockey operations, with the technology set to support player performance, organizational workflows, and front-office decision-making.
The partnership is designed to create an intelligence and orchestration layer across information the Sabres already collect rather than adding another standalone analytics dashboard. SprintAI will connect existing data sources and workflows, continuously interpret changes, and surface information, questions, and actions that require staff attention.
The system will support hockey operations staff in monitoring player performance, identifying meaningful changes in underlying data, searching and synthesizing information, automating routine reporting, and preserving organizational knowledge across departments.
The initial development roadmap includes two specific products. A Performance Staff Module will focus on efficiency, communication, workflow automation, and player-performance processes. SprintAI will also develop a General Manager Module in collaboration with the Sabres’ front office.
Jarmo Kekäläinen, General Manager of the Buffalo Sabres, said the organization is focused on using AI to connect and interpret information already available to its staff and get relevant context in front of decision-makers more efficiently.
“We are constantly looking for ways to improve how we support our players, how we make decisions as an organization and how we build a hockey operation that is prepared for the future.” — Jarmo Kekäläinen, General Manager, Buffalo Sabres
The partnership will evolve as the Sabres identify additional use cases. The club and SprintAI will jointly set development priorities and add new AI capabilities while maintaining protections around Buffalo’s proprietary data, methodologies, and competitive information.
SprintAI describes its platform as a sports-specific intelligence system combining data integration, artificial intelligence, workflow automation, and decision support. The company’s broader technology stack has historically centered on athlete training, recovery, performance, and wellness data, with machine-learning models used to help coaches and performance staffs interpret large volumes of information.
The Sabres agreement expands that model further into organizational intelligence and front-office operations.
Juha Tiihonen, Founder and CEO of SprintAI, said the next phase of sports AI is increasingly focused on connecting data and institutional knowledge rather than simply adding more analytics.
“The next competitive advantage comes from being able to connect and orchestrate all of that intelligence continuously.” — Juha Tiihonen, Founder and CEO, SprintAI
The Buffalo partnership follows SprintAI’s work with the Los Angeles Rams, which became the first NFL team to partner with the company in 2024.
The Rams initially deployed SprintAI to centralize and analyze large volumes of on- and off-field player information. The cloud-based system combined performance metrics, health and wellness data, testing information, and coaching tools in a unified environment, with models customized specifically for American football.
After the first full season of the Rams deployment, SprintAI said the team had reduced time spent searching across siloed systems, improved alignment among staff, accelerated decision-making, and seen benefits around player availability and readiness.
SprintAI has said many professional teams use only a small portion of the data available to them because information is distributed across systems and departments. Its platform is designed to clean, structure, and interpret those datasets before delivering alerts, recommendations, and context to staff.
The company has also partnered with the Association of Sports Performance Centres, whose network includes 114 Olympic, Paralympic, and elite training centers. Members include the Australian Institute of Sport, U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, UK Sports Institute, and France’s INSEP.
That partnership has focused on AI readiness, athlete development, coaching productivity, performance data, and talent identification across elite sports organizations.
For Buffalo, the new deployment moves beyond athlete monitoring alone. By combining the Performance Staff Module with a General Manager Module and broader workflow automation, the Sabres are applying AI across both performance and management functions inside hockey operations.
The organization is positioning the project around an AI-native operating model in which systems continuously monitor information and prepare relevant context for staff rather than requiring employees to repeatedly search multiple databases and applications before making decisions.
SprintAI: Buffalo Sabres and SprintAI Partnership
Los Angeles Rams: Rams and SprintAI Join Forces to Revolutionize Player Management
