Sabres’ Tage Thompson day-to-day with upper-body injury

The injury occurred during Friday night’s 5-4 victory over the New Jersey Devils. Thompson had collided with Devils forward Timo Meier and awkwardly went down. Thompson was in distress and made his way to the bench and, eventually, the locker room. He would return to the game; he logged one goal, four shots, and one hit in 13:14 of ice time. Despite the discomfort, Thompson played Saturday against the New York Islanders, picking up two shots in 17:03 of ice time. Only he and Sabres forward Casey Mittelstadt have played all 72 games.

This season, the 6-foot-7 center has taken the league by storm, notching a team-leading and career-high 44 goals and 45 assists for 89 points in 72 games this season. Part of those 44 goals also includes an astonishing five-goal night which he concluded in Dec. against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Thompson is ranked sixth among NHL goal scorers this season. In fact, the breakaway goal he scored against Devils Friday was his 100th NHL career goal. He also has 19 power-play goals this season. He is 11 points off from being the first Sabres player in the 21st century to tally 100 points. He is one point shy of being the first Sabres player to crack the 90-point threshold since Danny Briere in 2006-07.

Last season, Thompson emerged from the abyss and notched 38 goals and 68 points in 78 games. During the off-season, Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams signed the Glendale, Arizona product to a monster seven-year, $50,000,000 contract. The contract has an average annual value of $7,100,000 beginning in the 2023-24 season.