BUFFALO – In addition to his role as a special assistant to general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, former Sabres center Eric Staal will now be doing on-ice work during the season, coach Lindy Ruff said Wednesday.
“He’s going to help us with centermen, and he’s going to help out on the power play,” Ruff said in LECOM Harborcenter, where the Sabres will hold their first on-ice sessions of training camp Thursday. “He’s basically an assistant coach, like (a) consultant-type deal.”
Staal, 41, joined the Sabres’ front office last year under former GM Kevyn Adams, his friend and former teammate.
“He won’t be here daily, but he’s going to be here for a good part of every month, and it’s going to be an area he’s excited with helping out,” Ruff said.
The Sabres’ power play struggled down the stretch and into the Stanley Cup Playoffs last year. Overall, it ranked 21st in the regular season (19.5 percent) and sixth in the postseason (20.5 percent).
They’ve also struggled with faceoffs for years, annually ranking near the bottom of the NHL.
Staal enjoyed an 18-year playing career, scoring 455 goals and 1,063 points in 1,365 games. He played 37 games for the Sabres during their disastrous 2020-21 season before they traded him to the Montreal Canadiens.
He won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.
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Sabres winger Jason Zucker underwent offseason sports hernia surgery and could miss the first two weeks of the regular season, general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said Wednesday after players reported to camp.
“He’s very close to the start of the year,” Kekalainen said.
Meanwhile, Kekalainen said defenseman Louis Crevier, who arrived in the offseason trade that sent Bowen Byram to the Chicago Blackhawks, underwent shoulder surgery and will likely be ready for the season opener Oct. 1.
“He looks like he’s ready,” Kekalainen said. “I think he still needs to talk to the doctor that operated on him, but we think he’ll be ready for the start of the regular season. We still don’t have a final answer on it.”
In other injury news, Ruff said center Justin Danforth, who broke his kneecap in the fourth game last year and missed the rest of season, will likely start camp with the Sabres.
After undergoing surgery last season, Danforth had another procedure to clean up cartilage that was hindering his movement.
“He had his ups and downs with trying to get back,” Ruff said. “… He’s a really competitive guy who will do almost anything to win hockey games, from blocking shots, and that’s how he got hurt.
“We felt we had a right-handed centermen who could take key faceoffs for us. There was a little bit of a decision of whether he would be at camp maybe a month ago. But he’s starting to feel good.”