Sabres recall defenseman Kale Clague

Amid a brief wave of injuries to their defenseman, the Buffalo Sabres announced that they have recalled defenseman Kale Clague from the Rochester Americans of the AHL. No corresponding move has been announced. The Sabres, who have $19M in cap space, didn’t make the move for any cap purposes, but instead had a spot to give after Mattias Samuelsson left Saturday night’s game with a lower-body injury.

Buffalo is clearly having itself a tough weekend on the injury front, losing not only Samuelsson, but defenseman Henri Jokiharju as well, who was placed on IR on Friday with an upper-body injury. In response to that injury, the Sabres recalled defenseman Lawrence Pilut from Rochester the same day. Should they play, Pilut and Clague will have a chance to make an impact on a Buffalo team that appears to finally be turning a corner, off to a 4-1-0 start early on this season.

If and when Clague plays, it’ll be his first game in a Sabres sweater. The 24-year-old was originally a 2016 draft pick of the Los Angeles Kings, where he played parts of three seasons before the Montreal Canadiens selected him off waivers last December. Montreal failed to quality him this summer, and he hit the free agent market, where the Sabres signed him to a one-year, two-way contract. This season, Clague has three points, all assists in five games at the AHL level. For his NHL career, he has 16 points in 58 games.