Sabres place Jack Rathbone on waivers

It is a relatively quiet Friday on the NHL waiver wire, as the lone player made available is defenseman Jack Rathbone, who was placed on waivers by the Buffalo Sabres.

Rathbone has yet to suit up in a regular season game this year as he has dealt with an injury, and now the Sabres are placing him on waivers so that he can play for their AHL affiliate Rochester Americans if he clears.

While Rathbone is the only player on the wire today, that was the case yesterday for New York Rangers goalie James Reimer, who cleared Friday and is now eligible to re-join the Rangers’ AHL affiliate Hartford Wolf Pack.

Rathbone will now be available for the NHL’s other 31 teams to claim, and if claimed, he would be awarded to the claiming team with the highest priority. If he clears, Buffalo will be free to assign him to Rochester.

The Vancouver Canucks selected Rathbone with the No. 95 overall pick in the fourth round of the 2017 NHL Draft, and he turned pro in 2020-21 after two years playing for the Harvard Crimson of the NCAA at the collegiate level.

Rathbone has made appearances in 28 NHL regular season games, all with the Canucks, in which he’s tallied five points. Rathbone spent the entirety of each of the past two seasons in Rochester, where he notched 23 points in 63 games in 2024-25 followed by an 18-point effort across 49 games last year.

The Sabres, looking to make appearances in back-to-back Stanley Cup Playoffs after snapping what was the league’s longest postseason appearance drought last year, are off to a hot-and-cold 7-5-3 start that has them in seventh place in an Atlantic Division in which all eight teams are at least NHL .500 or better.

Buffalo is back in action on home ice on Friday night as they will welcome the Columbus Blue Jackets to KeyBank Center.