HELSINKI – Ville Leino owes this all to Buffalo. With sun shining throughout his window-filled headquarters on the edge of the Baltic Sea, he’s surrounded by inspired views, the trendy clothes he designed and paintings he brought to life.



“The injuries and tough times and everything in Buffalo, it opens your eyes a little bit that there’s stuff outside hockey,” Leino said. “Without that, I wouldn’t be lucky enough to do this.”



So, yes, the most infamous player in the Sabres’ 50-year history would do it all over again. Given the chance, he’d willingly accept the pain, the depression, the three-drug cocktail regularly injected into his hip, the losing, the eroding of his skills, the embarrassment of zero goals and – of course – the unbelievable gobs of money.



But as he weighs those three years in Buffalo, as long-gone emotions return to bring him down, he pauses. There’s one thing he...