Buffalo Sabres forward Jiri Kulich will miss a significant amount of time due to a blood clot, head coach Lindy Ruff announced Monday.

Ruff said he wouldn’t go any further into details, but added it was “pretty serious.”

It’s the latest blow to a team plagued by injuries and absences.

Forward Zach Benson has been in and out of the lineup all season. He was hospitalized on Oct. 8 after taking a puck to the face in practice. After missing the beginning of the season, he returned for eight games and racked up eight points. However, the blossoming young winger was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury on Oct. 31.

Ruff says it’s not yet determined if Benson will return for the team’s three-game road trip.

“We’re going to discuss whether it’s better for him to come or stay back and keep undergoing treatment,” Ruff said after practice.

Forward Jason Zucker has been out since Nov. 1 with a “viral, flu-like” illness and will not join the team on its road trip, according to Ruff.

“He hasn’t been able to shake [it],” Ruff said. “He’s undergone a lot of tests and still isn’t doing that well.”

Captain Rasmus Dahlin took a leave of absence last week to deal with a personal matter. The star defenseman is back in his native Sweden after his fiancée, Carolina Matovac, experienced major heart failure while the two were vacationing in France this summer and needed a transplant. There is no timetable for his return.

Josh Norris, the team’s top-line center, has been out since Oct. 9 after exiting the season opener with an upper-body injury. Free agent acquisition forward Justin Danforth has also been out with a lower-body injury after blocking a shot during a game on Oct. 15.

The team has had to rely on call-ups from the Rochester Americans to try and stay afloat in an ultra-competitive Eastern Conference. Ruff has plugged skilled forwards Isak Rosén and Noah Östlund into scoring roles with vary degrees of success, each notching a couple points in their last few games, while forward Josh Dunne has chipped in a goal in nine games while grinding it out on the fourth line.

Despite picking up points in nine of their last 12 games, the Sabres sit in last place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 5-6-4. They will travel to Utah, Colorado and Detroit this week before returning for a three-game homestand.