The Buffalo Sabres announced Wednesday that Rasmus Dahlin will be evaluated after suffering an injury during the team’s opening practice on the first day of training camp.
“It was just one of those things, he was passing the puck and something happened,” head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters afterwards. “So, you know, as a precaution, (we) got him off. He’s going to get looked at and then we’ll find out what’s going on.”
Dahlin, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, scored a career-high 20 goals last season, including 39 assists for 59 points in 81 regular-season games. The previous year, he hit career highs in assists and points with 58 and 73, respectively.
Through six NHL seasons, the 24-year-old has 66 goals and 226 assists for 292 points and 324 penalty minutes in 436 career regular-season games.
Last season, the Sabres finished 39-37-6 with 84 points, sixth in the Atlantic Division and seven points behind the No. 2 Wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. A middling start to the season turned mediocre by the end of 2023 with a 15-19-4 record, third-worst in the East at that point.
A winning record the rest of the way wasn’t enough to dig them out of their hole, and by the time they reached the March 8 NHL Trade Deadline, they had moved Kyle Okposo, Erik Johnson, Devin Cooley and Casey Mittlestadt (more on that last one, later).
After missing the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year, Don Granato was fired after the season. Buffalo would hire Lindy Ruff, who coached the club between 1997 and 2013, winning the Jack Adams Award in 2006 and taking them to the Stanley Cup Final in 1999 and four Eastern Conference Finals during his 15 seasons with the team. Since then, he’s coached both the Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils.
