{"id":467436,"date":"2026-02-22T23:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/467436\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T23:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:28:13","slug":"sabres-zach-benson-not-expected-to-return-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/467436\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres’ Zach Benson Not Expected To Return This Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NHL\u2019s three-week break wasn\u2019t long enough for a top Buffalo Sabres forward to kick the injury bug. Winger Zach Benson<\/a> is not expected to play in the team\u2019s return from the Olympic break due to an undisclosed issue separate from his recent upper-body injury, head coach Lindy Ruff<\/a> told NHL.com\u2019s Heather Engel<\/a>. Benson has been practicing on his own, per Engel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Benson had a hard crash into the boards during Buffalo\u2019s February 2nd win over the Florida Panthers. He scored Buffalo\u2019s fourth goal of the game before going down with injury. With that tally, Benson reached four points over his last six games and 26 points in 42 games on the season. He appears set to crack 20 assists, and a positive plus-minus, for the first time in his three-year NHL career. That growth has coincided with a boost up the lineup. Benson has commanded second-line minutes at points this season, largely on the back of his effort away from the puck.<\/p>\n

That tenacity caught up to the 5-foot-10 forward as Buffalo approached the midlde of the season. Buffalo turned toward top prospect Konsta Helenius<\/a> for their last two games following Benson\u2019s injury. Helenius recorded four hits and an even plus-minus in the matchups. He failed to continue the hot scoring that he kicked off his NHL career with \u2013 netting four points in his first three games \u2013 but still proved impactful away from the puck.<\/p>\n

That will make Buffalo\u2019s decisions a bit tougher when Benson is back to full health. Benson will slot back into the Sabres top-nine while Helenius will push into competition for ice time with Isak Rosen<\/a>, Tyson Kozak<\/a>, and Beck Malenstyn<\/a>. Of the bunch, the Sabres have preferred to keep Helenius in the minors, where his 38 points in 40 games rank third on the AHL\u2019s Rochester Americans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NHL\u2019s three-week break wasn\u2019t long enough for a top Buffalo Sabres forward to kick the injury bug.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5100],"tags":[1107,229,5133,5,402,4,1108,4023],"class_list":{"0":"post-467436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-sabres","8":"tag-buffalo","9":"tag-buffalo-sabres","10":"tag-buffalosabres","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-injury","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sabres","15":"tag-zach-benson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116116881901519871","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467436","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=467436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}