A little more than a week ago, Sabres blueliner Rasmus Dahlin took a leave of absence to return to Sweden to be with his fiancée who continues to recover from a heart transplant from the summer. He has now returned to the team as Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News relayed (Twitter link) that the captain has returned to the team and took part in today’s morning skate. The Sabres subsequently announced that blueliner Zac Jones has been sent back to AHL Rochester to make room for Dahlin on their active roster.
Dahlin had played in 14 games before briefly stepping away but had gotten off to a tough start by his high standards with the team scuffling early on. He had a goal and eight assists in those outings along with 17 blocks in a little over 24 minutes a night. However, like several of his teammates, some defensive miscues proved to be problematic.
But even with that, his return will certainly be a welcome one. He anchors Buffalo’s top pairing at even strength and runs their number one power play while also seeing some action shorthanded. Dahlin’s return will likely take Jacob Bryson out of the lineup after he got into the last three games.
As for Jones, he was brought up a little more than a week ago following a very strong start with the Americans (where he had 13 assists in 11 games) but didn’t see any action with Buffalo. Despite being up for more than a week, he still leads all AHL blueliners in points. Jones is in his first season with Buffalo after signing a one-year, $900K contract with them in free agency. He has 28 points in 115 career NHL outings, all with the Rangers.