Samuelsson Is Week-to-Week, Zellweger Is in Concussion Protocol, and Owen Power Is About to Get a Lot of Ice Time

The update on the Sabres' blue line is worse than it was 24 hours ago. Mattias Samuelsson is week-to-week with a lower-body injury and may miss the start of the season. Olen Zellweger is in concussion protocol. That's two of Buffalo's more meaningful defensive pieces unavailable before a game has counted.

What makes this sting is the context. Zellweger was brought in from Anaheim this summer specifically to help absorb the loss of Bowen Byram, who logged over 22 minutes a night last season before heading to Chicago. Samuelsson was supposed to be part of the veteran foundation around Rasmus Dahlin. Now both are out, and the depth chart behind Dahlin runs to Owen Power and Conor Timmins. Power is a capable young defender, and he's about to find out how capable in a hurry.

Dahlin remains the anchor — NHL Network had him in their top-20 players list this week, and the 74-point season that earned him that recognition was real. But one elite defenseman cannot cover a blue line that is already stretched. The Sabres' rebuild was designed around accumulating young pieces and letting them develop together; the problem is that the development timeline doesn't pause for pre-season injuries.

The next 10 days matter. If Samuelsson returns on the shorter end of week-to-week and Zellweger clears protocol without complication, this is a scare rather than a crisis. If either drags into the regular season, Buffalo opens in a hole it did not budget for.