You're reading into it too much, typical Grönborg I'd say.
Have no qualms with Dahlin as it was his first ever NHL season and his first ever team asked him to do so(doubt it was structured as advice), Buffalo however I don't understand when every other team only steps in if there's an injury.
Just this year we have Pettersson who ran out of gas at the end of his first season and had gone through a concussion and knee injurt, and Bratt who was injured in the last month of his second season(and had a jaw injury to start the season) and neither of their teams had any problems with them going since they cleared their medicals.
Sure and I'm open for that I'm reading into it too much. But then Grönborg is the ass, that couldn't say Dahlin feels he needs to prepare for the next season and he feels the pressure as an underage, upcoming superstar defenseman, or whatever.
They could have handled it better but I don't see many people rioting about it. Grönborg is rumored to coach the Sabres next season so perhaps he wants to keep a low profile.
There could be a deal in a slight chance, who knows? All I know someone has been an ass in this situation. The Sabres management, Dahlin, Grönborg or several, or all of them. What the heck is so difficult to relate into a response? Silence says more than answers sometimes and that bugs me. Why is it so difficult to just relay a message about the reason X, where X can be anything? It's just incompetent.
Or scenario Z) Sabres management are asses, Dahlin has no balls and Grönborg wants to be employed by the asses. All scenarios are possible, but it just reeks of something that smells bad. Silfverberg could say he has a dentist appointment and it was fine. Dahlin couldn't even lie. It's just fishy.
But whatever, enough with my conspiracy theories, this team should be good enough to go to battle. Sure, our forwards are kind of mediocre overall, our defense is kind of uneven, while our goaltending is strong. Still, as I've said, this will be a very hard team to beat. Well, as long as you don't play the bad players 1/3 of the game and generate lines and D-pairings that look like a dice roll. Top quality wise, we have really solid players in all positions, while our depth is mediocre.
Offense: 6-7/10 (because of depth, but also we don't have any real superstars). Question mark if Pettersson and Nylander can carry the load. If they can, the rest will follow. No big star veteran, that is a bad thing.
Defense: 7-8/10 (because of depth, but we have some pretty damn good defensemen, especially with Ekholm). Ekman-Larsson, Larsson and Ekholm are top notch for us, also Gustavsson in Chicago is a great offensive specialist. The rest? Ugh.
Goaltending: 8-9/10 (would've been 9-10/10 with Markström, hopefully he can be back, even if I feel it was Lundqvist's position to lose). As I've said, I'm a huge Lundqvist fan and I think Markström is equally good at this point. I have to say Lundqvist looked really sharp against the Czechs though, so I don't exactly feel worried with him in net. He's a true competitor and hates to lose. Even then, Enroth is a better goalie than the starters for most nations this tournament, which admittedly doesn't say much.