Jiri Kulich Is Skating Again, and the Sabres Have a Forward Back
A blood clot cost Kulich the 2025-26 season from Nov. 1 onward. Surgery cleared it in the spring, and he is expected to be available for 2026-27.
Quick answers
What is the latest Jiri Kulich injury update?
Kulich missed the remainder of 2025-26 after a blood clot was discovered, but the clot was surgically removed in spring 2026. By late August he had resumed non-contact skating and was expected to be available for 2026-27.
What is the next meaningful checkpoint in Jiri Kulich's return?
Contact practice and preseason participation are the next useful checkpoints. Non-contact skating shows Kulich has been cleared for exertion, but taking regular contact and playing an exhibition shift would provide stronger evidence that his return remains on course.
A blood clot took Jiri Kulich out of the Buffalo Sabres lineup from Nov. 1 and kept the centre out for the remainder of 2025-26. As of late August 2026, he is expected to be available for 2026-27.
The gap between a clot and a hockey injury
Most of what fills an NHL injury report has a known shape. A shoulder repair comes with a four-to-six-month window, a hip procedure with a range and a rehab protocol, and both come with a rough sense of when the player skates again. A blood clot does not work that way. There is no timeline attached to it at the point of diagnosis, because the first question is not when the player returns but whether the clot resolves.
That is why Kulich’s absence read differently from the rest of Buffalo’s season. He was not working back from something. He was waiting on a medical outcome that nobody could schedule.
Career concerns were real
Elliotte Friedman reported that the initial worry around Kulich extended past the season and to his career. That was not framed as a worst-case aside. In the early months of the absence, the possibility that he would not play again was the live question, and it stayed live long enough to shape how the situation was discussed through the winter.
The resolution came in the spring of 2026, when the clot was removed surgically and completely. That is the fact that changed the file from open-ended to a recovery with a direction, and everything since has followed from it.
Non-contact skating is the checkpoint that matters
Kulich has been back on the ice in non-contact work. In a normal injury that step is unremarkable, a box on the way to full practice. Here it is the substantive milestone, because it means he has been cleared to exert himself again on skates. The step from non-contact to contact is a hockey question. Getting to non-contact at all was the medical one.
Kulich himself struck a measured note in May 2026. “I think everything’s going the right way, and I’m looking forward for next season,” he said. That is roughly the confidence level the situation supports, and notably it is not a return date.
What it means for Buffalo
The Sabres spent 2025-26 absorbing injuries across the roster, and Kulich’s was the one with no end point to plan around. A club can build a depth chart around a player who is out until December. It cannot build one around a player who may not come back at all, which means the forward group operated all season without knowing whether it was short-term short or permanently short.
Having him expected for 2026-27 is not the same as having him at full contribution from opening night. He missed close to a full season of games, and the first weeks back will carry the usual questions about conditioning and timing that follow any long absence. But the roster arithmetic changes when a forward moves from unavailable to available, and that is where he now sits.
What to watch in camp
Whether he takes contact, and when. Kulich arriving at camp is expected. Kulich taking a regular shift in a preseason game, on a four-game exhibition schedule where every date is contested, would be the clearer signal that the medical file is genuinely closed rather than merely trending well.
Reporting for this story draws on ESPN NHL.
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