Sabres Activate Zach Benson, Assign Anton Wahlberg To AHL
The Sabres will welcome back a key winger to their lineup tonight against Tampa Bay. NHL.com’s Heather Engel relays (Twitter link) that Zach Benson has been activated off injured reserve. To make room on the roster, forward Anton Wahlberg has been sent down to AHL Rochester.
Benson has missed the last four weeks with an upper-body injury although he only ultimately missed four games. But between a facial injury and a lower-body issue earlier in the season, the 20-year-old has been limited to just 42 games so far. He has fared well in those outings, picking up seven goals and 19 assists, putting him on pace to pass his career high in points despite all the missed action. Head coach Lindy Ruff has rewarded the extra production with more ice time as Benson is logging 16:30 per game, a personal best.
This is a big season for Benson as he’s in the final year of his entry-level contract, making him a restricted free agent this summer. At this point, given the long-term deal given to Josh Doan and their desire to re-sign Alex Tuch to a long-term pact, Benson’s next contract seems likely to be a bridge agreement although a strong performance down the stretch could boost his chances of forcing Buffalo’s hand into giving him a long-term deal.
As for Wahlberg, he received his first NHL recall earlier this week but ultimately didn’t see any game action. The 20-year-old is in the first year of his entry-level deal and has six goals and 19 assists in 47 games for the Americans this season.
Sabres Announce Multiple IR Moves
The Buffalo Sabres have sorted out their injuries ahead of their return to action on Wednesday night. Forwards Joshua Norris and Joshua Dunne, as well as goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, have been activated from injured reserve and will be available for Wednesday’s game against the New Jersey Devils. In a corresponding move, Buffalo has also placed wingers Zach Benson and Jordan Greenway on IR per NHL.com’s Heather Engel. Greenway has not played since January 22nd, while Benson missed Buffalo’s final game before break on February 5th.
Buffalo will exchange roster forwards with these moves. Norris has served a middle-six center role when healthy but has only appeared in 19 games this season as he battled through multiple injuries. His most recent was sustained on January 14th, in a matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers. The 26 year old has racked up 17 points in his appearances this season, the third-highest scoring pace on the team behind Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin. He should return to an impact role on the second-line and should help the Sabres bridge the divide until Benson is able to return.
The 20-year-old Benson dealt with a couple of different ailments over the three-week Olympic break. His current injury has not been disclosed, though head coach Lindy Ruff did clarify that it is separate from the upper-body injury he sustained on February 2nd. Benson returned to skating earlier this week but hasn’t yet been folded into Buffalo’s practices, suggesting he could still have a bit before returning to NHL action. He will be eligible for activation as soon as he’s back to full health.
Buffalo will want their dynamo winger back as soon as possible. Benson has earned 26 points in 42 games this season – a 51-point scoring pace. On top of that, his best impacts have seemed to come away from the puck, where his mix of tenacity and skill allow Benson to fill any role on the forecheck. He has often been deployed on the second-line but has received upwards of 20 minutes of ice time a night when Buffalo needs a punch.
The biggest impact from these moves could be in net. Luukkonen went down with a lower-body injury on January 27th. The injury not only held him out of Buffalo’s subsequent five games, it also costed Luukkonen his spot on Team Finland’s Olympic roster.
Buffalo survived Luukkonen’s absence by leaning on Alex Lyon as their starter. He performed well, setting a .922 save percentage and two wins in four games in injury-relief, while rookie backup Colten Ellis recorded one overtime-loss. Luukkonen has split starts with Lyon for much of the year and recorded 11 wins and a .902 save percentage in 21 games. Those marks both fall just shy of the 14 wins and .912 save percentage that Lyon has reached in 27 games. The pair of goaltenders will continue to compete for starts, while Ellis likely remains with the NHL roster as an extra hand.
Buffalo’s series of moves is wrapped up by swapping two bruising depth-forwards off of IR. Greenway ranks seventh on the Sabres in hits-per-game, with an average of 7.18. Just above him, at sixth, is Dunne who has averaged 7.66 hits in what is his first chance at an extended NHL look. Greenway has beat out the first-year pro on the scorecard, netting five points and a minus-nine in 33 games, while Dunne has four points and a minus-four in 28 games. The two will exchange spots near the bottom of Buffalo’s lineup. The veteran Greenway would seem to have the edge on minutes when he’s back to full health.
Sabres Recall Anton Wahlberg
The Sabres announced they’ve recalled center prospect Anton Wahlberg from AHL Rochester. He’s expected to make his NHL debut tomorrow against the Devils with Zach Benson and Jordan Greenway both banged up. The team will need to make some sort of roster move before the game; while they have two open spots, those are expected to go to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Joshua Norris as they come off injured reserve.
Wahlberg, 20, was selected 39th overall in 2023 with a second-round pick the Sabres acquired from the Flyers in the Rasmus Ristolainen trade two years earlier. He quickly emerged as a top-nine piece in his native Sweden’s SHL in his post-draft year before arriving in Rochester in 2024. Since his arrival in March of that year, he’s played in 119 games. In that time, he’s put up 18 goals and 41 assists for 59 points with a +16 rating and just 24 penalty minutes.
That includes 47 games with Rochester this year. He hasn’t dominated offensively, although he’s still sixth on the team in scoring with six goals and 25 points. He’s been leveraged as a two-way piece down the middle, though, and has been up to the task with a team-best +12 rating.
Coming into 2025-26, Wahlberg was still a consensus top-10 prospect in an above-average Sabres pipeline. Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff gave Wahlberg the #6 spot, NHL.com put him at #5, and Elite Prospects had him at #10. “What the Sabres organization wants to see is more production in the dirty areas around the crease,” NHL.com wrote in their blurb, an understandable criticism given his 6’4″, 205-lb frame.
Wahlberg likely won’t remain up past when Greenway or Benson returns in the coming days. It’s nonetheless a good reward for a player who’s still got another season or two before he’s expected to make a significant NHL impact and should give Buffalo a better barometer of where his game is at.
Sabres To Activate Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Josh Norris From IR
The Sabres are expected to have goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and center Joshua Norris back in the lineup when their schedule resumes against the Devils on Wednesday, according to the team’s daily injury report. They’ll need to come off injured reserve, but with two open roster spots, there won’t be any corresponding moves required.
Buffalo will get their highest-paid goaltender back for their playoff push after a lower-body injury ultimately prevented him from repping Finland at the Winter Olympics as planned. He departed a Jan. 27 start against the Maple Leafs in the first period with a lower-body injury and subsequently missed five games leading into the break. He returned to practice late last week, though, and has been a full participant since.
Luukkonen was deployed more as a starter for the final few weeks before his injury, but on the whole, he’s dropped down from the clear-cut No. 1 into more of a tandem rotation with journeyman Alex Lyon. The latter has arguably been one of the best free agent signings of 2025, delivering immense value on his $1.5MM cap hit with a 14-8-3 record, .912 SV%, and 2.72 GAA in 27 appearances.
Various injuries and increased competition from Colten Ellis as a result of Buffalo’s three-goalie rotation have limited Luukkonen to 21 appearances this year. However, he’s largely rebounded from a tough start and has put up above-average play on the whole. He’s logged an 11-7-2 record with a .902 SV%, 2.73 GAA, and 1.2 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck. While he may not be starting Game 1 of a potential playoff series for the Sabres thanks to Lyon’s play, he’s still delivering dependable play at a $4.75MM cap hit that’s now more representative of a strong 1B option in today’s market anyway.
As for Norris, he’s been Buffalo’s best-producing forward not named Tage Thompson this season – when healthy, of course. Various upper-body concerns, the latest being a rib fracture, have continued to hamper his availability. He’s played just 22 games for the Sabres since being acquired from the Senators last season, but has been playing some of the best hockey of his career when dressed, notching six goals and 17 points in 19 outings this year.
He hasn’t played since Jan. 14, missing 12 games leading into the break. The absence would have been worse if not for the break in the schedule. He has, however, been skating since the end of last month and has been a full participant in practice since teams reconvened last week.
Sabres’ Zach Benson Not Expected To Return This Week
The NHL’s three-week break wasn’t long enough for a top Buffalo Sabres forward to kick the injury bug. Winger Zach Benson is not expected to play in the team’s return from the Olympic break due to an undisclosed issue separate from his recent upper-body injury, head coach Lindy Ruff told NHL.com’s Heather Engel. Benson has been practicing on his own, per Engel.
Benson had a hard crash into the boards during Buffalo’s February 2nd win over the Florida Panthers. He scored Buffalo’s fourth goal of the game before going down with injury. With that tally, Benson reached four points over his last six games and 26 points in 42 games on the season. He appears set to crack 20 assists, and a positive plus-minus, for the first time in his three-year NHL career. That growth has coincided with a boost up the lineup. Benson has commanded second-line minutes at points this season, largely on the back of his effort away from the puck.
That tenacity caught up to the 5-foot-10 forward as Buffalo approached the midlde of the season. Buffalo turned toward top prospect Konsta Helenius for their last two games following Benson’s injury. Helenius recorded four hits and an even plus-minus in the matchups. He failed to continue the hot scoring that he kicked off his NHL career with – netting four points in his first three games – but still proved impactful away from the puck.
That will make Buffalo’s decisions a bit tougher when Benson is back to full health. Benson will slot back into the Sabres top-nine while Helenius will push into competition for ice time with Isak Rosen, Tyson Kozak, and Beck Malenstyn. Of the bunch, the Sabres have preferred to keep Helenius in the minors, where his 38 points in 40 games rank third on the AHL’s Rochester Americans.
Buffalo Sabres Recall Zach Metsa
The Buffalo Sabres announced this morning that they have recalled defenseman Zach Metsa from their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans.
Metsa was originally reassigned at the start of the Olympic break. He’s spent a larger portion of this season on the Sabres’ NHL roster. Since Buffalo next plays on Wednesday, the same day the Americans have their next game, Metsa would not get the chance to play in any additional games by remaining on the AHL roster, hence today’s recall.
Today’s recall comes during what has been the most successful campaign of Metsa’s pro career. The 27-year-old is an undrafted player who signed with the Sabres coming out of college, where he captained Quinnipiac University to a national championship in 2022-23. Metsa has developed at a steady pace at the AHL level, going from 24 points in 54 games in his rookie season to 46 points in 69 games as a second-year pro.
This season, Metsa has 15 points in 16 games as his performances earned him a depth role at the NHL level. While he hasn’t yet earned the trust of head coach Lindy Ruff to the point where he’s trusted to play a strong diet of minutes (he averages just 9:42 time on ice per game) he has gotten into 26 NHL games.
If Metsa can continue to earn the trust of Ruff, the Sabres could end up getting real surplus value on Metsa’s contract. The two-year deal he signed in July of last year has an additional season remaining at a $775K NHL salary and $325K total guarantee.
While Metsa isn’t playing very much in the NHL right now, if he can build himself to the point where he’s relied on as a capable third-pairing or even No. 7 defenseman, his league-minimum NHL cap hit should give the Sabres solid cap savings next to what a comparable player might cost on the open market.
When Metsa was sent down on Feb. 6, he was reassigned alongside two young Sabres forwards: Konsta Helenius and Isak Rosén. Neither player has been recalled to this point, but given how well each has played at the AHL level this season, it would be a surprise to see them spend too much time in Rochester in the remaining portion of the season.
Tage Thompson A Full Participant At Practice
With the chance to win his third Gold Medal, all eyes are on whether captain Sidney Crosby will play for Team Canada tomorrow. Crosby left Canada’s quarterfinal matchup against Czechia due to a lower-body injury and didn’t appear in the semifinal contest against Finland.
Earlier today, TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reported that there’s a “70% chance” that Crosby will play tomorrow. Head coach Jon Cooper and the rest of Team Canada’s staff wanted to see how Crosby handled practice this morning and what his limitations will be tomorrow morning (local time).
Regardless, it would be unimaginable for Crosby not to play in what is likely the last Olympic tournament of his career. Even if he has to take a page out of Victor Hedman‘s book, who remained on Team Sweden’s bench for the quarterfinal game after suffering an injury in warmups, Crosby will likely suit up in some capacity tomorrow.
Other notes from the Olympics:
- One player who will not play for Team Canada tomorrow is defenseman Josh Morrissey. Earlier this week, it seemed that Morrissey might return from his upper-body injury by the semifinals. However, Mike McIntyre of The Winnipeg Free Press reported that he has already been ruled out of the Gold Medal game. Media personnel asked Cooper if he could clarify Morrissey’s injury and if he suffered any setbacks, to which Cooper replied, “No. With all due respect to Winnipeg.“
- After leaving yesterday’s game in the third period for precautionary reasons, Tage Thompson was back on the ice with Team USA this morning. Given that he was back on the ice, there’s every indication he’ll be in the lineup tomorrow morning. He has had a strong performance so far, scoring three goals and four points in five games with a +3 rating.
- In today’s Bronze Medal game between Finland and Slovakia, the latter club was without Martin Pospisil, who has been dealing with a nagging injury for most of the Olympic tournament, according to Arpon Basu of The Athletic. There could be some cause for concern, given that Pospisil missed a decent chunk of the 2025-26 season due to an undisclosed injury in training camp. He finished the Olympics with one assist in six games.
No Progress On Tuch Extension Talks
While Sabres GM Jarmo Kekalainen called extending pending UFA winger Alex Tuch a top priority after being named to the position, it doesn’t appear progress is being made on that front. In a recent appearance on DFO Live (video link), The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reported that while the sides remain communicative, they aren’t getting any closer to getting a deal in place. The 29-year-old is in the middle of another strong season, as he has posted 22 goals and 26 assists in 56 games so far. At this point, it’s likely that he’ll more than double his current $4.75MM AAV based on comparable wingers to sign extensions in recent months. But even if Kekalainen isn’t willing to pay that price tag just yet, it’s unlikely that he’d turn around and move Tuch before the March 6th trade deadline with Buffalo in the playoff picture as they look to reach the postseason for the first time since 2011.
Team USA’s Tage Thompson Leaves Game For Precautionary Reasons
Team USA winger Tage Thompson was held out of the third period against Team Slovakia for precautionary reasons. He was seen removing his skate and walking up-and-down the tunnel between the second and third periods, though the nature of his injury wasn’t specified. USA head coach Mike Sullivan shared postgame that he expects Thompson to suit up for Sunday’s Gold Medal matchup against Team Canada per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Thompson scored a powerplay goal in the second period. He has been a hot hand for the United States all tournament long, scoring three goals and four points in five games. Thompson’s big frame and sharpshooting have earned him a role on the top power-play unit – a bold statement after the 28 year old was left off of USA’s roster for the 2025 4-Nations Face-Off. Thompson has emerged as a core piece of the USA offense and should be slotted into another starring role should he indeed suit up for the Gold Medal game.
This level of scoring comes as no surprise to the Buffalo Sabres. Thompson leads the Sabres with 30 goals and 59 points in 57 games, putting him on pace to reach 43 goals and 85 points across 82 games. That mark would land above the 44 goals and 72 points that Thompson posted last season, though still sits under his career-high 47 goals and 94 points scored in 78 games of the 2022-23 season.
Latest On Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Scott Ratzlaff
Los Angeles Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson told reporters, including Zach Dooley, Manager of Editorial Content for the team, that he is optimistic to return next game post-break, against Vegas on February 25.
The 26-year-old was able to skate over the break and is on the right track. Anderson left early against Carolina on February 1 with an apparent finger injury, unable to go in the Kings’ last two games before the Olympics. Clearly missing their trusty shutdown sidekick of Drew Doughty, the Kings lost both, and were outscored 8-3. Anderson was placed on injured reserve February 8.
Set to host Vegas in six days, the game will be full of excitement as Artemi Panarin is expected to make his long awaited Kings debut, although with the damper of missing Kevin Fiala after his devastating injury in Milan. Hopefully with Anderson back in the mix, Los Angeles will work on catching Anaheim for the second Wild Card spot and push for the playoffs.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen returned to practice today, noted by Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio 550, and seems to be on track to return in his club’s next game as well. The soon to be 27-year-old left mid game against Toronto on January 27 due to an apparent lower-body injury, concerning as he had to miss the start of the campaign due to the same ailment. Unfortunately, the injury cost him a spot on Team Finland at the Olympics, opening the door for Bruins netminder Joonas Korpisalo. Luukkonen has posted a .902 save percentage and 2.73 goals against average, to go with an 11-7-2 record. Buffalo is back in action next Wednesday at New Jersey.
- Not surprising given Luukkonen’s positive news, Buffalo reassigned fellow netminder Scott Ratzlaff back to ECHL Jacksonville earlier today. Like many others across the league, Ratzlaff got to fill in and practice with the big club during the Olympic break. A fifth round selection by the team in 2023, the 20-year-old is in his first professional season hailing from the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL. Ratzlaff has spent most time in the ECHL, posting a strong .916 save percentage in 12 contests, also playing in six games for AHL Rochester, winning three.