{"id":499381,"date":"2026-01-07T17:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T17:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/499381\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T17:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T17:21:14","slug":"buffalo-sabres-make-four-roster-moves-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/499381\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Sabres Make Four Roster Moves \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Buffalo Sabres announced<\/a> a series of roster moves today, as they activated veteran Jason Zucker<\/a><\/strong> off of injured reserve and recalled defenseman Zac Jones<\/a><\/strong> from their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans. In two corresponding moves, the Sabres placed defenseman Michael Kesselring<\/a><\/strong> and goaltender Alex Lyon<\/a><\/strong> on injured reserve.<\/p>\n

Zucker, 33, has been out since the Sabres\u2019 Dec. 8 contest against the Calgary Flames. Despite losing Zucker, a veteran of nearly 800 games who had 18 points in 21 games before his injury, the Sabres went on a 10-game win streak starting in their first game without Zucker, a streak that only came to an end Jan. 3 at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Per NHL.com\u2019s Heather Engel<\/a>, Zucker will return to the lineup as the Sabres\u2019 second-line right winger. When he last played, Zucker was the team\u2019s third-line left wing, skating on a line with Jack Quinn<\/a><\/strong> and Ryan McLeod<\/a><\/strong>. Zach Benson<\/a><\/strong> is now in that spot.<\/p>\n

The return of Zucker should help the Sabres build more momentum in their push to end their playoff drought, which stands as the league\u2019s longest. The 33-year-old is playing out the first year of a two-year contract extension he signed in March of last year, one that carries a $4.75MM cap hit.<\/p>\n

Shifting focus to the Sabres\u2019 defense, the team placed Kesselring on IR after he missed the team\u2019s Saturday loss to the Blue Jackets. The 25-year-old missed nearly a month with a lower-body injury in November and December, and also began the season with a lower-body injury that cost him nine games. The 6\u20195\u2033 blueliner was acquired by the Sabres over the summer as part of the JJ Peterka<\/strong><\/a> trade. The Sabres also received breakout winger Josh Doan<\/strong><\/a> from the Utah Mammoth in the deal.<\/p>\n

His difficulty staying healthy has cost Kesselring the chance to play a significant role on head coach Lindy Ruff\u2019s defense. Through 16 games played this season, Kesselring doesn\u2019t have a point and is averaging just over 15 minutes of ice time per game, including just over a minute shorthanded.<\/p>\n

Replacing Kesselring on the roster is Jones, a former minor league and NCAA standout. Once one of the better prospects in the New York Rangers\u2019 system (he was ranked No. 2 in their pool by The Athletic\u2019s Scott Wheeler in 2022<\/a>), Jones failed to earn a regular role on the Rangers, serving mainly as a reserve defenseman under former head coach Peter Laviolette.<\/p>\n

Jones was not extended a qualifying offer by the Rangers last summer, and the Sabres signed him to a one-year, $900K deal with a hefty $550K AHL salary. While he has yet to make his Sabres debut after failing to earn a spot on the team out of training camp, he has been brilliant at the AHL level. Jones has 30 points in 27 games for the Americans, leading the team in scoring.<\/p>\n

If Jones gets the chance to play during this recall, it would be a significant opportunity for him as he is a pending restricted free agent. The Athletic\u2019s Matthew Fairburn wrote<\/a> on Jan. 3 that the Sabres \u201cdon\u2019t have a lot of internal options Ruff trusts.\u201d If Jones can find a way to earn the trust of Ruff to a greater extent than his rival Sabres depth blueliners have been able to (namely Zach Metsa<\/strong><\/a>, Jacob Bryson<\/strong><\/a>, and Ryan Johnson<\/strong><\/a>), he could secure an extended runway to show off his skills at the NHL level.<\/p>\n

To clear sufficient room for Jones\u2019 recall and Zucker\u2019s activation on their regular roster, the Sabres placed Lyon, a goalie, on IR. Lyon has been dealing with a lower-body injury and will now miss at least a week due to this IR placement. The 33-year-old has a 10-6-3 record this season with a .904 save percentage, and is under contract at a $1.5MM AAV through next season. Since the Sabres have been carrying three goalies on their active roster, they are able to place Lyon on IR without recalling another netminder.<\/p>\n

With Lyon injured, Ruff and the Sabres will turn to veteran Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen<\/strong><\/a> and rookie waiver claim Colten Ellis<\/strong><\/a> in the crease to help sustain the momentum they built with their win streak.<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Sabres announced a series of roster moves today, as they activated veteran Jason Zucker off of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":499382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[42],"tags":[10490,224224,1720,224225,224226,293,62,67,132,68,25191,224227],"class_list":["post-499381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ahl","tag-alex-lyon","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-jason-zucker","tag-michael-kesselring","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-zac-jones","tag-zachary-jones"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115854972423210482","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}