The Buffalo Sabres announced today that forward Isak Rosén has been recalled from the club’s AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans. In a corresponding move, Buffalo placed veteran forward Jason Zucker on injured reserve.
With Zucker now out indefinitely due to an undisclosed injury, this recall presents Rosén with an extremely valuable opportunity to establish himself, finally, as a full-time NHL player.
Of the 30 skaters drafted in the first round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, Rosén is tied for 25th in terms of career NHL games played. Despite the fact that Rosén has not developed quite as quickly as some of his peers from the 2021 draft class, most evaluators have remained optimistic about Rosén’s NHL future. 
In January, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler reiterated his projection of Rosén as a potential 20-goal top-nine forward. Over the summer, Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff called Rosén “the best pure winger” in the Sabres’ system and ranked him No. 5 in the Sabres’ prospect pool.
With that said, some evaluators have been more pessimistic about Rosén’s NHL future. The Athletic’s Corey Pronman wrote in August that Rosén’s relatively slight “frame plus average compete level leaves questions on whether he can translate his skill to the NHL.”
With Zucker out indefinitely, Rosén is likely to get the chance to validate his believers and prove his doubters wrong at the NHL level. He has already begun to do so, to a limited extent, this season. Rosén spent most of November in Buffalo, skating in a total of 10 games for the Sabres. He started off well, scoring his first NHL goal in his first game of his recall. He finished his NHL stint in late November with seven points in just 10 games, a level of production that slots him in as the ninth-most productive Sabres forward so far in 2025-26.
While it’s unclear at this moment whether Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff will slot Rosén in directly to the lineup spot formerly occupied by Zucker, he’d likely be a superior offensive option to other Sabres depth forwards. Outside of his strong NHL scoring from his first recall, Rosén has also impressed at the AHL level, scoring 19 points in 13 games.
Beyond just the key on-ice implications of this recall for Rosén’s odds of becoming a full-time NHLer, this season also carries significant financial ramifications for the player. Rosen is set to turn 23 in March and is coming up on the expiry of his entry-level contract. Rosén’s entry-level deal didn’t carry any signing bonuses for 2025-26, meaning if Rosén fails to secure a lasting spot in the NHL, he’ll play most of the campaign on just his $80K AHL salary. For a player who has made at least $172.5K in each of the past two seasons of his ELC, that would represent a significant pay cut.
As a result, while Zucker’s injury was certainly unfortunate news for the Sabres as a whole, and most definitely not something Rosén is celebrating, Zucker’s absence does create a hole in the Sabres’ NHL lineup that Rosén could massively benefit from. This is potentially the opportunity for Rosén to get a long runway to prove himself at the NHL level that he’s been waiting for, and now all that’s left for him to do is to continue to produce and continue to make the most of the ice time he receives.
Photos Courtesy of Mark Konezny-Imagn Images