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Buffalo Sabres Moving Dylan Cozens To Right Wing

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The Buffalo Sabres are switching things up at the top of their forward core to give a struggling player an offensive jolt. The player in question is 23-year-old center Dylan Cozens who’s only mustered three assists in 10 games to start the 2024-25 campaign.

Cozens is leading the team in shots with 32 and has maintained his physicality with 19 hits on the year. The Sabres and Ruff hope that with less pressure in the faceoff dot and with positioning the offense will start to come for Cozens before it’s too late.

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Rasmus Dahlin Fined By Department Of Player Safety

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  • Buffalo Sabres’ captain Rasmus Dahlin’s two-minute minor for high-sticking and two-minute minor for roughing in last night’s action has turned into more. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced they have fined Dahlin $5,000 for yesterday’s incident, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The play took place with seven minutes remaining of the third period when Dahlin swung his stick into the face of Florida Panthers’ forward Anton Lundell after positioning for the puck at the Sabres’ blue line.

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Buffalo Sabres To Place Zach Benson On IR

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The Buffalo Sabres will have to wait a little longer for the return of their top prospects. As expected, Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio reported earlier that the organization placed forward Zach Benson on injured reserve to make room for Nicolas Aube-Kubel tonight.

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Nicolas Aubé-Kubel On Track To Return Monday

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Updates On Owen Power, Zach Benson

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The Sabres received some good news on the injury front today, as Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News reports that defenseman Owen Power was a participant in practice after leaving yesterday’s win over the Red Wings in the third period with an undisclosed ailment. It’s believed to be an illness that kept him out of the third period Saturday for all but one shift, Lysowski adds.

Power’s presence is certainly a major factor in helping the Sabres keep their forward momentum. They’ve now won three in a row to get out of a tough 1-4-1 hole they put themselves in to begin the season, climbing back to .500 and third place in the Atlantic Division. Power’s been a big part of the turnaround with a goal and five assists in his last four games, although he’s currently tracking with the worst possession metrics of his four-year NHL career (although not by a significant amount).

Sabres To Activate Nicolas Aubé-Kubel From Injured Reserve

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The Sabres will activate right-winger Nicolas Aubé-Kubel from injured reserve in the coming days, head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters today, including Heather Engel of NHL.com. He’s medically cleared to play but may not be in the lineup tomorrow against the Red Wings with only one full practice under his belt, Ruff said. He’ll return to the lineup no later than Monday against the Panthers.

Aubé-Kubel, 28, sustained a lower-body injury in the season opener against the Devils in Prague back on Oct. 4. He was placed on IR a few days later, after which Ruff said he’d miss the next three to six weeks. Today marks exactly three weeks since he sustained the initial injury, so this marks the best-case scenario for his return to the lineup.

Buffalo landed Aubé-Kubel over the summer as a free agent, inking him to a one-year, $1.5MM deal. The high-energy fourth-line piece had spent most of the last two seasons with the Capitals after they claimed him off waivers from the Maple Leafs early in the 2022-23 campaign. Aubé-Kubel shined as a depth piece in D.C., posting 16 points in 60 games last year while averaging a career-high 12:12 per game. He finished fifth on the team in hits with 159, and his +4 rating was tied for second. He also recorded 32 takeaways compared to 19 giveaways, one of the better differentials on the team.

The Alberta native was also part of the Avalanche team that won the Stanley Cup in 2022. Claimed off waivers from the Flyers early in the season, Aubé-Kubel went on to post a career-high 11 goals and 12 assists for 23 points in 74 regular-season games.

The Sabres can recreate two-thirds of what was an extremely effective fourth line for Washington last year after also acquiring left-winger Beck Malenstyn via trade. They had the duo centered by Sam Lafferty for under six minutes on opening night before Aubé-Kubel sustained the injury.

Buffalo has a full 23-man roster and will need to make a corresponding transaction to activate Aubé-Kubel. That could be returning 2022 first-round pick Jiri Kulich, who’s been scratched twice and has been limited to a goal in six appearances despite averaging over 15 minutes per game, to AHL Rochester. It could also be placing winger Zach Benson on IR – the sophomore is day-to-day with a lower-body injury that’s kept him out of two games this season. He wasn’t at practice today, relays Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News.

Zach Benson Remains Out With Lower-Body Injury

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  • The Buffalo Sabres returned to practice this morning after a big win against the Dallas Stars but were still absent Zach Benson who’s been dealing with a mysterious ailment (X Link). Reports indicate Benson is nursing a lower-body injury suffered during the organization’s trip to Prague to kick off the regular season but the Sabres have been vague about his status up to this point. The ailment appears to have affected his play on the ice with Benson going scoreless through his first six contests while averaging just over 14 minutes of ice time per game.

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Zach Benson Out Tonight

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Montreal Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson is in the lineup tonight against the New York Rangers (as per  Eric Engels of Sportsnet). Matheson left the Canadiens game last Thursday night with an apparent upper-body injury after playing just 7:35 during the first period. He didn’t return for the second period and was ruled out of the game. The 30-year-old then returned to the Canadiens lineup on Saturday night against the Islanders and played over 28 minutes, tallying an assist.

Matheson’s dressing tonight left fellow defenseman Arber Xhekaj on the outside looking in as the Hamilton, Ontario native was made a healthy scratch. It marks the second game in a row that the 23-year-old has had to watch from the press box as he didn’t dress in New York on Saturday night.

In other evening notes:

  • Buffalo Sabres forward Zach Benson sat out tonight’s game and has been dealing with an issue since the team opened the season in Prague (as per Joe Yerdon of Noted Hockey). Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff credited the youngster with trying to play through the injury but said the ailment was beginning to affect his play. The 13th overall pick in 2023 is pointless through six games this season but has very strong underlying numbers and could benefit from a bit of rest to try and deal with the issue that has been nagging him. Buffalo doesn’t play again until Saturday.
  • The Athletic ran a poll with 40 high-ranking league executives to see who they believe is the NHL’s top front office. Among the participants were scouting directors, senior advisors, general managers, and assistant general managers. The top three clubs in the rankings were the Dallas Stars at one, the Tampa Bay Lightning second, and the Florida Panthers in third. The Golden Knights and Bruins rounded out the top five.  It’s no surprise to see three recent Stanley Cup winners in the top five, but what is surprising is seeing the number one ranking go to a team that hasn’t won a Stanley Cup since 1999. Although, the Stars did go to a Stanley Cup Final in 2020.

Jordan Greenway Resumes Skating, Could Return Tomorrow

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The defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers have gotten off to a strong start this season to the tune of a 4-2-1 record which becomes more impressive when considering the team has been without forwards Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk for five games. The latter has been out for more than a week with an illness but should return tomorrow night against the Minnesota Wild according to David Dwork of The Hockey News.

Tkachuk managed two assists in two games for the Panthers to start the season before exiting the lineup on October 14th. He’s expected to slot in on the right wing next to familiar linemates Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe.

He should have been a popular candidate to replace Eetu Luostarinen on Florida’s first line but their production over the last few games leaves little room for upgrade. According to Hockey Reference, the combination of Luostarinen, Sam Reinhart, and Anton Lundell has produced 23 points through seven games with an even more impressive E +/- of 8.1.

Other Atlantic notes:

  •  The Ottawa Senators’ most notable unrestricted free agent signing from this past offseason, David Perron, will be away from the team for the foreseeable future due to personal reasons (X Link). Perron joined the Senators on a two-year, $8MM pact to take on a similar role to his tenure with the Detroit Red Wings. He’s gone scoreless through his initial five games with the organization and will look to rebound upon his return.
  • Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News reported earlier that forward Jordan Greenway has returned to practice for the Buffalo Sabres after suffering an upper-body injury and Mike Harrington of Buffalo News Sports later added he could feature in the lineup tomorrow. Greenway was a surprise scratch in the team’s most recent game against the Chicago Blackhawks a few days ago as it took until after the contest to learn about his upper-body injury. He currently sits tied for fourth on Buffalo in scoring with two goals and four points through the first six games. 

Sabres Sign Scott Ratzlaff To Entry-Level Contract

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The Buffalo Sabres have added some goaltending depth to their organization. The organization announced they have signed netminder Scott Ratzlaff to a three-year, entry-level contract although he is unlikely to play with the organization this season.

Buffalo drafted Ratzlaff with the 141st overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft and his development in the WHL has exceeded expectations. The young netminder finished last season with a 21-26-1 record with a .905 save percentage and 3.33 goals against average in 52 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds but has gotten off to a torrid start this year.

He has a 3-0-0 record through the Thunderbirds’ first three contests with an impressive .933 SV%. His strong start to the 2024-25 WHL season comes after a solid preseason with the Sabres where he secured a 1.000 SV% in two games with 10 saves against the Pittsburgh Penguins and 20 saves against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The rookie head coach for the AHL’s Rochester Americans, Michael Leone, was enthusiastic about Ratzlaff’s preseason performance saying, “He’s been great. He did a really good job controlling pucks. We had a lot of defensive-zone faceoffs and he made sure we didn’t face a lot of second and third chances. He’s a young kid and this is a big moment for him. For him and his development, it’s only going to be good for him to move on and take confidence from this experience with him as he continues to progress“.

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