{"id":283791,"date":"2025-11-10T19:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T19:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/283791\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T19:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T19:23:08","slug":"sabres-jiri-kulich-diagnosed-with-blood-clot-out-indefinitely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/283791\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres’ Jiri Kulich Diagnosed With Blood Clot, Out Indefinitely"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sabres center\u00a0Jiri Kulich<\/a> will miss a \u201csignificant amount of time\u201d after a blood clot was diagnosed during an unrelated injury absence, head coach\u00a0Lindy Ruff<\/a>\u00a0told reporters today (per Joe Yerdon of Bleacher Report<\/a>). Ruff demonstrated optimism about Kulich being able to play again this season, but wouldn\u2019t commit to it, leaving the door open to Kulich\u2019s IR stint being permanent for the balance of the campaign.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll have a better estimate of Kulich\u2019s return timeline based on how his treatment progresses in the next three to four weeks, Ruff said. That\u2019s normal for clotting issues. The Penguins recently<\/a> had the same thing sideline rookie\u00a0Filip Hallander<\/a> and immediately gave him a three-month timeline.<\/p>\n

Kulich had already missed three games with a facial injury and was placed<\/a> on IR late last week as Buffalo tries to manage a crushing amount of injuries to its forward group. Five regulars \u2013 Kulich,\u00a0Zach Benson<\/a>,\u00a0Justin Danforth<\/a>,\u00a0Joshua Norris<\/a>, and\u00a0Jason Zucker<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 are currently on injured reserve with none expected back in the short term. Understandably, the team\u2019s offense has faltered. Their 2.67 goals per game are sixth-worst in the league, and they\u2019re averaging just 1.75 per game over their last four outings.<\/p>\n

Kulich\u2019s long-term health now takes the forefront, though. The 21-year-old had played in 12 straight to begin the year and was frequently serving as their top center between Benson and Tage Thompson<\/a>. He\u2019s notched three goals and five points with a -4 rating while averaging a career-high 16:22 per game. The No. 28 pick in the 2022 draft is in just his second season as a regular but has managed an 18-11\u201329 scoring line through his first 75 career games.<\/p>\n

With both of Thompson\u2019s usual linemates out of commission, he\u2019s seen\u00a0Ryan McLeod<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Alex Tuch<\/a>\u00a0elevated to ride shotgun. That trio practiced together again today, although Buffalo is off until Wednesday after losing 6-3 to the Hurricanes on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sabres center\u00a0Jiri Kulich will miss a \u201csignificant amount of time\u201d after a blood clot was diagnosed during an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1809,10156,149899,10669,385,99],"class_list":["post-283791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-injury","tag-jiri-kulich","tag-newsstand","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}