{"id":291304,"date":"2025-11-08T15:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T15:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/291304\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T15:00:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T15:00:12","slug":"sabres-star-ramus-dahlin-leaves-team-to-be-with-fiancee-after-heart-transplant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/291304\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres star Ramus Dahlin leaves team to be with fianc\u00e9e after heart transplant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sabres star Rasmus Dahlin has taken a temporary leave of absence to deal with what head coach Lindy Ruff labeled Friday a \u201cpersonal matter\u201d in Sweden.<\/p>\n<p>Dahlin and his fianc\u00e9e, Carolina Matovac, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/09\/19\/sports\/sabres-rasmus-dahlin-shares-story-of-fiancees-near-death-experience\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">revealed she received an emergency heart transplant earlier this year<\/a> in France while on vacation.<\/p>\n<p>Ruff said there is no timeframe for when the team captain may return, and he indicated there has not been a turn for the worse for Matovac.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.83398438;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37611205\" width=\"492\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sabres2.png\" alt=\"Ramus Dahlin (l) and Caroline Matovac (r) in 2022.\" class=\"wp-image-37611205\"  \/>Ramus Dahlin (l) and Carolina Matovac (r) in 2022. @carolinamatovac\/Instagram<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said everything is OK,\u201d Ruff told reporters Friday. \u201cHe\u2019s got full support by our team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cI think it\u2019s been incredibly hard. Not the easiest. I fully understand what this young man is going through. I don\u2019t think you can describe it and I don\u2019t think you can feel what he\u2019s feeling. I\u2019m pretty passionate about the fact that no one would want to walk in his shoes and having dealt with what he has dealt with. He has undoubtedly got the support of everybody on this. This is larger than hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dahlin and Matovac, both 25, detailed their harrowing offseason <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DOydpn-Drld\/?img_index=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">in a joint Instagram post<\/a> in September ahead of the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n<p>Matovac began feeling sick during their vacation in France, which led to \u201cmajor heart failure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She received CPR, which helped keep her alive and \u201cultimately saved her life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout her receiving lifesaving CRP, the result would have been unimaginable,\u201d they wrote. \u201cIt is hard to even think about the worst-case scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Matovac had to stay in a French hospital and received a heart transplant.<\/p>\n<p>The pair was undergoing rehab to allow her return to Buffalo.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37611259\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/rasmus-dahlin-26-buffalo-sabres-114509880.jpg\" alt=\"Rasmus Dahlin of the Buffalo Sabres skates against Marat Khusnutdinov of the Boston Bruins during an ice hockey game.\" class=\"wp-image-37611259\"  \/>Rasmus Dahlin during an Oct. 30, 2025 Sabres game against the Bruins. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The engaged couple thanked, among others, the medical professionals, NHL, National Hockey League Players\u2019 Association, the Sabres and the Pegula family \u2014 which owns the team, for their support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis has undoubtedly been the most challenging chapter of our lives, however it is something that we have learned so much from,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will continue to grow from these experiences and are so grateful for all the love and support we have received. We are truly blessed in so many ways and fully realize how fortunate we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Dahlin has appeared in 14 games for Buffalo (5-5-4) this season, scoring one goal and eight assists.<\/p>\n<p>This marks his eighth season in the NHL, all with the franchise.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/18\/sports\/panthers-brad-marchand-tears-apart-sabres-rasmus-dahlins-helmet\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">He had a wild fight<\/a> earlier this season against Panthers star Brad Marchand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFamily and person come before hockey,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cHockey\u2019s our job, hockey\u2019s our lifeline, but family and personal trump anything that comes before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sabres star Rasmus Dahlin has taken a temporary leave of absence to deal with what head coach Lindy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[229,5,6422,4,4011,43,1718,7924],"class_list":{"0":"post-291304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-buffalo-sabres","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-lindy-ruff","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-rasmus-dahlin","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-sweden","15":"tag-wags"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115514679288944730","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}