The Buffalo Sabres have suspended defenceman Zach Bogosian for failure to report to the club’s AHL affiliate in Rochester. The 29-year-old was waived late last week and cleared before Buffalo assigned him to their minor league organization. The team announced the move late Monday afternoon.
We have suspended defenseman Zach Bogosian due to failure to report to the Rochester Americans.
There will be no further information or comment at this time.
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) February 17, 2020
Zach Bogosian Suspended
Bogosian is having one of the worst seasons of his career. He has just one goal and five points in 19 games. That is a steep drop from three goals and 19 points last season. Buffalo has cut into his playing time to such a degree that he requested a trade earlier this year but that did not materialize.
Bogosian is not much of an offensive threat at this point in his career. His last 20-point season came in 2015-16 when he scored seven goals and 24 points in 64 games. He also doesn’t help drive the play either. His Corsi For percentage is below 50 percent and the team consistently takes fewer shots with him on the ice. Bogosian can still be a solid physical presence when he does play but his style is falling out of favour. It is possible he will get traded and recapture some of the skill he showed with the Winnipeg Jets. Playing in Buffalo’s system is doing him no favours.
What This Means for the Future
The Sabres were already cutting Bogosian out of their regular blue line rotation so this suspension does nothing. They could still trade the veteran for another forward but Bogosian won’t have much value as a suspended player with poor stats nearing free agency.
On the other side, Bogosian represents a slight trend of players refusing to play under toxic circumstances. Jesse Puljujarvi, Lias Andersson and Dustin Byfuglien are several players who have exercised their right to not play for various reasons. Players have very few avenues to express their displeasure with their team, so this sort of situation is one to monitor moving forward. The trade deadline is one week away.
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