The former No. 1 overall pick is away from the team indefinitely


Getty Images

Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin will take a temporary leave of absence to deal with a personal matter in Sweden, coach Lindy Ruff said Friday. There is no timetable for his return.

According to The Athletic, Dahlin will return to his home country to support his fiancée, Carolina Matovac, who is in recovery from a heart transplant.

"He said everything is OK," Ruff said. "He's got full support by our team."

Dahlin and Matovac announced in September that the latter experienced major heart failure on vacation in France this summer. She received life-saving CPR for hours at a time and was transferred to a hospital, where she remained on life support for weeks while she awaited a heart transplant. Matovac had the transplant later in the summer and eventually returned to Sweden to continue the rehabilitation process.

"I think it's been incredibly hard," Ruff said. "Not easy. I fully understand what this young man is going through. I don't think you can describe it, and I don't think you can feel what he's feeling. I'm pretty passionate about the fact that no one would want to walk in his shoes and have dealt with what he dealt with. He has undoubtedly got the support of everybody on this. This is larger than hockey."

Dahlin embarked on the NHL season with the Sabres during Matovac's recovery but will step away temporarily after 14 games. Despite the heavy emotional toll of his fiancée's health, Dahlin was highly productive as the anchor of the Sabres' defense and accumulated nine points while averaging more than 24 minutes per contest.

"Family and person come before hockey," Ruff said. "Hockey's our job. Hockey's our lifeline. But family and personal trump anything that comes before."

The Sabres selected Dahlin with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. They will have to press on for the foreseeable future without their most reliable defenseman -- a three-time NHL All-Star who is in his second year as the team's captain.

Source