Patrik Berglund suspended indefinitely by Sabres

The Buffalo Sabres announced today that forward Patrik Berglund has been suspended indefinitely by the organization due to failure to report to the team.

Head coach Phil Housley initially stated Berglund missed the past two games due to illness. It now appears there is something more to his absence.

“From my knowledge talking to the medical staff, he was ill, so we handled it that way,” Housley said. “Obviously it developed into something different, and (general manager Jason Botterill) and the management are handling that.”

The veteran forward was also officially taken off the Sabres website Saturday. He had been struggling to find his place on a young Buffalo team gushing with promising offensive talent.

Berglund had been a healthy scratch earlier in the season and missed five games with an upper-body. In the 23 games he has appeared in this year, the 30-year-old has two goals and four points.

According to John Vogl of the Athletic, Berglund wasn’t happy about getting benched/scratched just seven games into the season, though he was struggling defensively. It’s unclear if his failure to report to the team is related to his disappointment in lack of ice time.

Berglund was traded to Buffalo from St. Louis in the offseason as part of a four-player trade that saw elite two-way centre Ryan O’Reilly get shipped to the Blues.

Berglund played the first 10 seasons of his NHL career with the Blues prior to being traded to Buffalo on July 1, 2018. The Swede has four years remaining on his contract at a salary-cap hit of $3.85 million.

While Berglund hadn’t been on the scoresheet since Nov.3 against Ottawa, he was seeing bottom-six minutes for the Sabres and is a quality veteran presence on a young and contending Buffalo squad.

We’ll update this story when we find out more information.