Sabres Lose Ostlund and Carrick for Round 2, Forcing Ruff to Lean Deeper Into His Lineup

Buffalo confirmed Sunday that forwards Noah Ostlund and Sam Carrick will both miss the entirety of the second-round playoff series. Head coach Lindy Ruff was direct: 'I don't believe either will be available in this series yet.' Ostlund picked up his injury during the first-round run, while Carrick has been sidelined since the regular season — two separate timelines, same net result for a Sabres depth chart that was already operating lean.

Ostlund is the more notable absence from a skill standpoint. The young Swede had carved out a role as a reliable secondary contributor capable of generating shot volume and transitional offense. Losing him forces Ruff to redistribute ice time across the bottom six, which typically means marginal players logging minutes they haven't earned through performance — always a volatility multiplier in tight playoff series. Carrick's loss is less about offense and more about the physical, grinding presence he provides on fourth-line shifts and penalty kill assignments.

For Buffalo, the downstream effect runs straight to their top-six usage. Tage Thompson, JJ Peterka, and Jason Zucker — among others — figure to see elevated deployment, particularly in defensive-zone starts that would've otherwise gone to Carrick. More minutes for primary contributors in a higher-leverage role cuts both ways: it inflates raw counting stat opportunities but also increases fatigue exposure across a short series schedule.

That forward deployment shift is where the prop market gets interesting. Thompson's shots-on-goal total has already been priced as a featured line given his role as Buffalo's fulcrum — with the depth corps further depleted, expect his ice time to edge upward, supporting the over on his shots number if the line sits at 3.5 or below. Peterka's points prop also deserves a look; secondary creators tend to get a quiet boost when coaches can't platoon effectively through the lineup. On the Sabres' team total, the injury context cuts against Buffalo if their opponent can exploit the reduced penalty kill depth — monitor the over/under closely for any movement that hasn't yet priced in Carrick's absence on special teams.

The broader takeaway: this isn't a top-line injury, so the moneyline and spread markets may not overreact. That's exactly where sharp money finds value — the market underweights depth attrition, while the actual in-game structure quietly shifts in ways that surface on player props and team totals before the books adjust.