BUFFALO - Justin Danforth has been through enough to know the difference between a normal setback and a grind that tests everything.
So when the Sabres forward was asked Monday about the hardest part of recovering from the broken kneecap he suffered while blocking a shot early last season, he didn’t need long to answer.
“Oh God,” he said with a sigh. “It was a tough rehab.”
That injury arrived just four games into his first season in Buffalo, and what looked at first like a three-month recovery turned into something much longer. After surgery, Danforth, 33, expected to be back around that mark. But once he got back on the ice near that point, the pain was still there.
“There was just so much pain involved with it,” he said. “So we went back in for another surgery.”
That second procedure cleaned up loose cartilage, and only after that did he begin to ramp up with off-ice and on-ice work. By then, though, the season had moved on without him. The Sabres surged and became the NHL’s hottest team, while Danforth watched the final 91 games, postseason included, from the outside.
For him, the whole year turned into a brutal detour.
“It was probably my toughest year of hockey,” he said.
He had joined Buffalo on a two-year, $3.6 million contract as a free agent in 2025, and the timing of the injury made the frustration even sharper. He was trying to establish himself with a new club, prove himself to teammates and coaches, and instead was stuck trying to get healthy.
“I’ve had adversity through my career, but this last year, you come into a new team, you want to show the guys what you’re all about and show the coaching staff, and I just wasn’t able to do it,” he said.
The stop-and-start rehab wore on him mentally, too, even if he kept leaning on the people around him.
“But I got a great support system, the staff here, the teammates, my fiancée, (McKailey),” he said. “They were able to pick me up and I needed it.”
There were still moments of doubt along the way, especially when the calendar kept moving and his recovery didn’t.
“You’re like, ‘When am I gonna turn the corner?’” he said. “So that’s when you just had to ask the right questions and put the work in to get back.”
By mid-summer, Danforth said he was “about full fledged on the ice, four days a week,” and when training camp opened, he felt his skating and power coming back. On Monday morning, the 5-foot-8, 193-pound forward skated on the right side with Matthew Peca and Thomas Bordeleau before the Sabres headed to Pittsburgh for their preseason opener against the Penguins, his first game since Oct. 15.
“He’s like, ‘I’ve never been so excited for an exhibition game,’” Sabres assistant coach Seth Appert said.
Buffalo dressed mostly players headed for Rochester against Pittsburgh, with Danforth one of a small group of veterans in the lineup. The Sabres’ home game tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets is expected to include more NHL regulars.
Danforth has carved out his place in the league the hard way, as an undrafted player who spent years grinding in the low minors and overseas before becoming a reliable fourth-liner and penalty killer. He has 31 goals in 187 career games, and the Sabres value the way his speed and edge fit with a team built around skill and pace.
He said watching last season from the sideline only reinforced what he saw in Buffalo.
“I watched a lot of hockey last year, and what a special team, just the amount of skill and speed you have on this team, it’s incredible to watch,” Danforth said. “… But my game doesn’t change.
I’m an energy guy. I play the game fast.
I forecheck hard, and I try and chip in offensively when I can, and provide that energy boost.”
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