Sabres To Activate Rasmus Dahlin, Sam Lafferty, Jordan Greenway Out Long-Term
Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin will be available for tomorrow’s matchup against the Maple Leafs, head coach Lindy Ruff said Thursday (via Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News). He’ll need to come off injured reserve after missing over two weeks with back spasms. Center Sam Lafferty also told reporters today that he’s healthy and will be available against Toronto. However, it’s uncertain whether he’ll enter the lineup, per Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio 550.
Buffalo only has one open roster spot and must make a corresponding transaction to take both off IR. That will likely mean replacing Lafferty on IR with winger Jordan Greenway, who Ruff said requires surgery to address a mid-body injury and will be sidelined long-term, via Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. He’s out indefinitely but is expected back “at some point this season,” Ruff said. Pivot Ryan McLeod is also banged up and will be a game-time decision against the Leafs with an undisclosed injury, Hamilton reports. His absence would necessitate Lafferty’s return unless Ruff dresses 11 forwards and seven defensemen in the hopes of breaking their 11-game winless streak.
Dahlin’s absence is one of the chief reasons why Buffalo hasn’t managed a victory since Nov. 23, although it’s not the only one. Their winless streak was already four games deep when Dahlin took a hit in the third period of a game against the Avalanche that aggravated a back issue he’d been dealing with since training camp. Buffalo’s leader in average time on ice at 24:42 per game also has 19 points in 25 contests, exceeding his point pace from last season.
The 2018 first-overall pick has emerged as one of the league’s premier blue-liners, finishing top-15 in Norris Trophy voting two years in a row and currently checking in at 13th among defenders with 0.76 points per game. He also has a +4 rating to lead Sabres defenders and has been their best two-way player, controlling 59.5% of shot attempts at even strength. In contrast, Buffalo has only managed to control 47.8% of shot attempts without Dahlin on the ice. Only the Rangers’ Adam Fox and the Canucks’ Quinn Hughes have had a more significant impact on their teams’ even-strength possession this season among defensemen.
Tomorrow will mark the Sabres’ first game with a healthy blue line since November 11. Mattias Samuelsson missed extended time with a lower-body injury sustained in that game, and Dahlin exited the lineup before he managed to return.
It won’t be a surprise if Lafferty is activated but sits as an extra forward against Toronto, assuming McLeod can play. The 29-year-old hasn’t had the impact the Sabres hoped after signing him to a two-year, $4MM pact in free agency. He has just one goal through 22 games and has only infrequently appeared on the team’s penalty kill, averaging 9:48 per game in all situations. He’s been a net negative in nearly every area of the game, posting a -2 rating, winning 43.8% of his faceoffs, and controlling 46.6% of shot attempts at even strength.
Surgery is a harsh outcome for Greenway, who’s been one of the few Sabres forwards outperforming expectations this season. The New York native has seven points through 20 games and averages a career-high 15:55 per game, adding 54 hits. The checking winger has averaged nearly full three minutes per game while shorthanded and controls 51.2% of shot attempts at even strength despite 60.2% of his zone starts occurring in the defensive zone.
His mid-body issue has limited him to four appearances in Buffalo’s last 15 games, though. He missed 10 games with the problem before attempting to return earlier this month, re-exiting the lineup for Tuesday’s 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Canadiens.
Meanwhile, the Sabres and McLeod likely hope his undisclosed injury is just a blip in a good season for the middle-six center. He has six goals and 15 points through 32 games, and he’s on pace to break the career-high of 12 goals and 30 points he set with the Oilers last year.
Evening Notes: Gustavsson, Dahlin, Duclair
Joe Smith of The Athletic tweeted that Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson did not practice today with the team. Dylan Loucks of The Hockey News also reported that Gustavsson will miss his second consecutive game tomorrow night against the Florida Panthers. Marc-Andre Fleury will get the start with Jesper Wallstedt backing him up. Although Gustavsson will miss tomorrow night’s game, Joe Smith tweeted that Wild head coach John Hynes believes it will be a short-term injury.
Gustavsson has returned to form in 2024-25, bouncing back from a difficult stretch last season. Thus far this year, Gustavsson has posted a 14-5-3 record, along with a 2.24 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage in 22 appearances.
In other evening notes:
- Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio 550 reported today that Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff is optimistic that the team will get defenseman Rasmus Dahlin back into the lineup very soon. Dahlin could practice as early as Thursday and depending on how that goes, he could suit up Friday when the Sabres take on Toronto. The 24-year-old has been dealing with a back issue that initially flared up in training camp and has missed seven straight games.
- New York Islanders forward Anthony Duclair didn’t play tonight against Carolina but has been medically cleared to return and will do so whenever he is comfortable to return (as per Ethan Sears of the New York Post). Duclair has missed 28 straight games with a lower-body injury and has played just five times this season, tallying two goals and an assist in those games. The 29-year-old signed a four-year deal in the summer as a free agent and will likely occupy a top-six role for the Islanders when he does return.
Atlantic Notes: Domi, McCabe, Pastrňák, Greenway, Dahlin
According to David Alter of The Hockey News, the Toronto Maple Leafs had a pair of injured players at practice today. Alter shared that forward Max Domi and defenseman Jake McCabe were full participants at today’s practice and the former could even return tomorrow (X Link).
It’s been nearly a month since Domi suited up for the Maple Leafs since his last game came on November 16th against the Edmonton Oilers. In the first year of a four-year, $15MM contract signed in Toronto this past offseason, Domi has tallied six assists in 19 games for the Maple Leafs while primarily centering the team’s second line.
McCabe has been out for a shorter time with his last contest coming on November 30th. Still, it’s encouraging to see both players at practice given Toronto currently has four players on injured reserve and another three on the long-term injured reserve.
Other Atlantic notes:
- One notable absence of the Boston Bruins’ practice this morning was David Pastrňák who is reportedly out with an upper-body injury, according to Conor Ryan of The Boston Globe. Boston is hopeful that Pastrňák will be in the lineup tomorrow night against the Winnipeg Jets so the team hasn’t made a corresponding roster move. The Havirov, Czechia native has struggled lately scoring one goal in his last 11 contests.
- Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News confirms that Buffalo Sabres’ winger Jordan Greenway will return to the lineup tonight against the Detroit Red Wings. He’s missed the last 10 games for the Sabres after scoring three goals and six points through his first 16 contests.
- One player not returning to Buffalo’s lineup tonight is captain Rasmus Dahlin as the team announced he participated in a rehab skate this morning. There’s growing optimism that Dahlin will be able to return this weekend when the Sabres take on the Washington Capitals on Saturday. The first-year captain in Buffalo has scored three goals and 19 points in 25 games this season.
Morning Notes: Provorov, Kucherov, Dahlin
Aaron Portzline of The Athletic writes that Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Ivan Provorov could play tonight when the team takes on the Winnipeg Jets. Provorov left Friday night’s game against the Vancouver Canucks with what was called an upper-body injury, which was later revealed to be an injury to his thumb. Photos circulated online of the 27-year-old’s thumb, and it certainly looked painful, however, Portzline is hearing that it’s possible he could play.
Provorov is an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season and has two goals and seven assists in 26 games so far this year. He will likely become a trade candidate at some point later in the season as the Blue Jackets are unlikely to be a playoff team.
In other morning notes:
- Tampa Bay Lightning star forward Nikita Kucherov could return to the lineup today when the team takes on the Canucks (as per NHL.com). The 31-year-old has missed two games due to an undisclosed injury and hasn’t played since November 29th. Tampa had a quiet week last week with just two games and would be fortunate if that is all the time the reigning Art Ross Trophy winner misses. Kucherov is having another stellar season with 12 goals and 22 assists in just 22 games.
- Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin missed last night’s game against Utah due to back spasms (as per NHL.com). The 24-year-old missed Thursday night’s game against Winnipeg and only played a single shift in the third period of Tuesday night’s game against Colorado before he left. Dahlin dealt with a back issue during training camp in September and missed five days before rejoining the team for practice. Despite the issue, the former first-overall pick is still having a good season with six goals and 13 assists in 25 games.
Atlantic Notes: Dahlin, Samuelsson, Bobrovsky
There will be a glaring hole on the Buffalo Sabres’ blue line tonight. Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News reported earlier that defenseman Rasmus Dahlin won’t play for the Sabres tonight without adding any context regarding an injury.
Lysowski’s update was relatively vague aside from the update that Dahlin wouldn’t be in the lineup. He added a note from head coach Lindy Ruff who claimed it’s expected to be a short-term absence for the team’s best defenseman but “you never know.” It’s not exactly something that strikes confidence in the idea that Dahlin will return soon.
Buffalo’s captain has become irreplaceable for the organization as he sits third on the team in scoring with six goals and 19 points in 25 games. The Sabres will have a tough time keeping up with a surgical Winnipeg offense tonight with their best defenseman. He’s the only blue liner on the roster with an expected +/- higher than 0.
Other Atlantic notes:
- There’s at least one positive development for Buffalo’s blue line as Lysowski also shared that defenseman Mattias Samuelsson is close to returning from his lower-body injury. It’s been nearly a month since Samuelsson last suited up for the Sabres and the team is hoping to get him a few more practices before activating him from the injured reserve. They’ll need him to be better once he does return as Samuelsson has only managed an 83.2% on-ice save percentage in all situations, far beneath his career average.
- It’ll still be a few days before Sergei Bobrovsky returns to the Florida Panthers. Katie Engleson of Scripps Sports reported the Panthers are hopeful Bobrovsky returns on Saturday against the San Jose Sharks but they’re prepared if he can’t. He’s currently on personal leave from the team as he and his wife, Olga, recently welcomed their second child.
Sabres Recall Ryan Johnson
The Sabres announced Thursday that they’ve recalled defenseman Ryan Johnson from AHL Rochester. Buffalo has a full active roster, so a corresponding transaction is imminent.
Johnson’s recall gives the Sabres an extra defender for tonight’s game against the Jets after captain Rasmus Dahlin left Tuesday’s collapse against the Avalanche in the third period with back spasms. The star blue liner had been dealing with back issues since training camp, but head coach Lindy Ruff said that a hit from Colorado superstar Cale Makar in the corner aggravated the problem.
Dahlin will likely miss tonight’s game as a result. If the pending corresponding move is an injured reserve placement for Dahlin, he would also miss their following two games – including a key divisional battle against the Red Wings on Dec. 9.
That would be an enormous blow to the Sabres, who are now 4-5-1 in their last 10 games and have slipped back below the .500 mark for the first time since Nov. 16. They’re three points back of the Flyers for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with no games in hand and need to leapfrog five teams to get back into playoff position – a stark reminder of how competitive the East postseason race is shaping up to be in the first half of the campaign.
Johnson is a good choice as far as short-term insurance policies go, though. The Sabres selected the 23-year-old with the final pick of the first round in the 2019 draft. After a full four years at the University of Minnesota, he turned pro in 2023 and split last season between the NHL and AHL.
The son of former NHLer Craig Johnson spent about half the season on the Buffalo roster, recording seven assists and a +3 rating while averaging 13:53 per night over 41 games. The 6’1″, 195-lb lefty didn’t get much special teams usage, but the Sabres controlled play well with him on the ice at even strength (52.7 CF%, 52.9 xGF%).
While he’s been lauded as a two-way defender, Johnson’s point totals haven’t popped yet in the pros. He’s still looking for his first professional goal and has only 14 assists in 48 games for Rochester dating back to his debut last season.
That’s not to say he’s been a liability, though. As Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald profiled last month, Johnson’s taken leaps and bounds defensively in Rochester this season. If his offensive development stagnates, he looks to be a competent stay-at-home piece for the Sabres.
The Sabres could make several transactions to accommodate Johnson’s recall without placing Dahlin on IR. The most foreseeable is reassigning center Tyson Kozak back to Rochester, whom they recalled last week in the wake of a short-term injury to Sam Lafferty. However, Kozak has been a healthy scratch in two straight and is waiver-exempt.
East Notes: Rust, Dahlin, Romanov, Motte
The Pittsburgh Penguins organization didn’t get a positive update on forward Bryan Rust‘s injury. The team’s play-by-play commentator, Jeff Getzoff, shared that Rust is considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury after evaluations.
Rust suffered the lower-body injury in the team’s most recent game against the Vancouver Canucks after receiving a hit from Nils Hoglander. The veteran forward was quickly ruled out of that game’s action after only 13:18 of ice time and missed the team’s practice yesterday.
The injury could be related to the lower-body injury that kept Rust from the ice at the beginning of the season. He missed Pittsburgh’s first two games of the regular season but has managed three goals and four points in eight straight games. The Penguins only have 12 healthy forwards on the roster meaning Valtteri Puustinen should garner more ice time if the organization doesn’t make a recall from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Other notes from the Eastern Conference:
- 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.
- The New York Islanders will be without defenseman Alexander Romanov for the second straight game. Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News reports Romanov is still considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury from one of the team’s recent games against the New Jersey Devils. There hasn’t been any indication up to this point that Romanov will be able to dress in tomorrow night’s action against the Columbus Blue Jackets, either.
- Ansar Khan of MLive reports the Detroit Red Wings are still without forward Tyler Motte who is suffering from an upper-body injury. His unavailability will have a downstream effect on the roster with the organization keeping the ability to keep prospect Marco Kasper on the roster under emergency conditions for the time being. Kasper has skated in five games for the Red Wings during his emergency recall with one assist to show for it while averaging 15:22 of ice time. Once Motte can return, Detroit must make a roster move to comply with the emergency condition protocols.
Sabres Name Rasmus Dahlin Captain
The Sabres announced Thursday that they have named Rasmus Dahlin their next captain.
Dahlin succeeds Kyle Okposo, whose time as captain in Buffalo ended when they traded him to the Panthers at last season’s trade deadline. He’d been captain since the beginning of the 2022-23 season.
The 24-year-old is entering his seventh season with the Sabres, who made him the first overall pick in the 2018 draft. He’s served as an alternate captain for the past two years.
It’s a natural transition for Dahlin as he enters the first year of an eight-year, $88MM extension signed at the beginning of last season. It took a while for the young Swedish defenseman to blossom at the NHL level through his entry-level contract but he has quickly become one of the league’s best.
His importance to Buffalo has become apparent over the last three years with 48 goals and 185 points in 239 games with a -13 rating. The use of his body has picked up too averaging 1.76 hits per game and 1.58 blocked shots per game. He’s earned two top-15 finishes in Norris Trophy voting the past two seasons and is looking to take another step forward this year.
If the Sabres fail to make the postseason for a 14th straight year there is little to no chance it will be because of Dahlin. He’s finished first on the team in E+/- over the last two years and finished towards the top of the team in CorsiFor% proving Buffalo is at their best when he is on the ice. His ability to carry the team on the ice proves his leadership capabilities and the organization has formalized the role.
New head coach of the Sabres, Lindy Ruff, spoke highly of the team’s new captain saying, “He does everything right, first and foremost. His on-ice action has been incredible, and I think he’s a guy that leads in every category, from the way he prepares himself to the way he plays and the fact that he’s a guy who cares about winning hockey games“.
Atlantic Notes: Matthews, Järnkrok, Dahlin, Ullmark, Eliasson
Maple Leafs forwards Auston Matthews and Calle Järnkrok remain absent from practice Wednesday after they were given injury designations by the club yesterday, per Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star.
Matthews’ ailment appears to be the most minor of minor injuries. He’s not listed as day-to-day by the club, which instead said he’s out for maintenance today. Head coach Craig Berube said Tuesday that he’d sustained a minor upper-body injury that caused him to leave practice early, but that there wasn’t much cause for concern.
Järnkrok, meanwhile, is still listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury and is still a little bit away from returning. Both should be considered doubtful for Thursday’s preseason match against the Canadiens at this stage, especially for a game with no standings implications.
More news and notes from around the Atlantic Division:
- Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin is with his teammates in Germany today and has shed his non-contact jersey ahead of Friday’s exhibition game against EHC Munich, the team said. He’s been held out of preseason action thus far after sustaining an undisclosed injury one week ago. It appears he’ll be ready to go for the overseas contest later this week, and should be all systems go for their regular season opener against the Devils in Prague in nine days.
- Senators goalie Linus Ullmark is back at practice Wednesday, per Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. He was held out of practice for the past couple of days while battling an undisclosed injury. He could be an option to play in Thursday’s home game against the Sabres’ B-squad, Garrioch added.
- Still with Ottawa, they now know where 2024 second-round pick Gabriel Eliasson will play this season. After being cut from their training camp roster earlier this week, the Swedish defenseman’s major junior rights were picked up by the OHL’s Barrie Colts today in a trade with the Niagara IceDogs. The hulking 6’7″, 216-lb 18-year-old is expected to sign a scholarship and development agreement and report to the Colts for his first season in North America after spending the last two seasons in his native Sweden in HV71’s junior system.
Evening Notes: Dahlin, Kings, Expansion
Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff is hoping that defenseman Rasmus Dahlin will be able to join the team at practice tomorrow in a non-contact capacity (as per Bill Hoppe of the Times Herald). The former first-overall pick left just a few minutes into the Sabres first practice last week and has not skated with the team since. Dahlin skated this morning before the team did and does appear ready to take the next step in his short recovery.
The Sabres will likely compete for a playoff spot this season and will need a healthy Dahlin in order to have a chance. The 24-year-old has been remarkably durable during his six-year NHL career, only missing seven games over the past four seasons and just 17 games during his entire NHL career.
In other evening notes:
- The Los Angeles Kings could be on the hunt for some help on their fourth line (as per Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period). The Kings don’t currently have a fourth-line center set in stone and have been rotating different options through that spot thus far in training camp. Bernstein wonders if Kings general manager Rob Blake will begin to search the market to see if there is a player that could be brought in. Bernstein doesn’t specify whether that could be the trade market or one of the current free agents on a PTO, but it looks as though the Kings aren’t comfortable with any of their internal options for the role.
- NHL commissioner Gary Bettman spoke to the media today and poured cold water on the rumors that the NHL is looking at expansion (as per Adam Laskaris of Daily Hive Toronto). Bettman called the rumors “categorically false,” and said that the NHL is not looking to expand at the moment. Bettman did concede that he would be updating the NHL’s Board of Governors on the cities that have expressed interest in getting an NHL team, but beyond that, there would be no further action at this time.