Sabres winger Nicolas Aubé-Kubel will miss the next three to six weeks with a lower-body injury, head coach Lindy Ruff said in today’s injury report. He was already placed on injured reserve yesterday before opening night rosters were due, allowing the Sabres to retain Jiri Kulich on the active roster with other forwards battling short-term injuries.
Aubé-Kubel left Buffalo’s regular-season opener against the Devils in Prague on Friday in the third period and didn’t return. He took a minor penalty, recorded two shots on goal, and added three hits in 5:45 of ice time in his truncated Sabres debut.
It’s a tough break for the 28-year-old, who’s hoping to be a regular on the Sabres’ fourth line after inking a one-year, $1.5MM deal in the offseason. The bang-and-crash winger had been effective in preseason on a unit with Beck Malenstyn and Sam Lafferty – the former of whom was also Aubé-Kubel’s linemate with the Capitals last year. The 2014 second-round pick of the Flyers has limited offensive upside, only once hitting 10 goals and 20 points, but he’s a feared checker with a lengthy history of good possession metrics in tough defensive usage. He had 16 points (6 G, 10 A) in 60 games for the Caps last year.
Other injury updates out of Buffalo:
- One of those aforementioned forwards battling short-term injuries is John-Jason Peterka, who left the second Global Series game against New Jersey with a concussion after being laid out by Devils defender Brenden Dillon. He was given an official day-to-day designation today, per Ruff, and skated on his own. The German winger is a big loss for the Sabres if he misses any length of time – he started the year in a top-line role alongside Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch after breaking out for 28 goals and 50 points last season. The 2020 second-round pick hasn’t been ruled out for their home opener against the Kings on Thursday, but it would be surprising to see him draw into the lineup less than a week after a concussion diagnosis.
- Also dealing with a day-to-day injury is sophomore winger Zach Benson, who Ruff said today has yet to resume skating with his lower-body injury. That’s a concerning sign for his availability against the Kings and could force the Sabres to make an IR placement in the next 48 hours to open up space for a recall from AHL Rochester. They have 13 forwards on the active roster but only 11 healthy ones with Benson and Peterka out. The 19-year-old sustained the injury in the first Global Series game but played through it, logging 17:23 of ice time.