The Buffalo Sabres had a great 2025-26 regular-season, and goalie Ukko Pekka Luukkonen was a big part of it. And in this series on TheHockeyNews.com, we're grading Sabres players and management. What grade do you think Luukkonen deserves to get?
Timothy T. Ludwig, USA TODAY ImagesThe Buffalo Sabres made it into the Stanley Cup playoffs last season, ending a 15-year playoff drought. Buffalo went on to beat an upstart Boston Bruins team in the first round before falling to the Montreal Canadiens in the second round.
The Sabres’ step forward in 2025-26 means TheHockeyNews.com’s annual process of grading the Sabres will result in mainly-positive grades, Buffalo is far from a perfect team, but when we’re analyzing their individual performances from last season, we must be more generous than not.
That said, in this particular “Sabres Grades” file, we’re focusing on goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukonen. The 27-year-old Finn appeared in 36 games this past season, posting a .910 save percentage and a 2.52 GAA. But his playoff performance was less than ideal, as he had an .876 SP and 3.18 GAA in six appearances, and in four of six playoff appearances, his SP was .880 or worse.
So, while we’re going to acknowledge Luukkonen’s strong stretches this year, we’re not going to give him an ‘A’ – at least, not just yet:
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Position: Goaltender
Grade: B+
The Skinny: Prior to this past season, Luukkonen had been a workhorse for the Sabres, as he’d played a combined 109 games in two seasons from 2023-2025. But the lesser workload this season resulted in a significant bounce-back season from him this past year. Luukkonen has put up a .910 SP in two of the past three seasons, so you can see why the Sabres have kept him as their de facto starter.
Luukkonen also is signed to a team-friendly contract paying him $4.75-million for the next three seasons. But backup Alex Lyon (.907 SP, 2.77 GAA) provided him with healthy competition, and youngster Colten Ellis is also in the picture. Luukkonen has some no-trade protection – a five-team no-trade list – and if Buffalo did choose to go in a different direction in net, Luukkonen would get a lot of attention based on his strong play in two of the past three years.
Had Luukkonen come into the 2026 post-season and showed consistency between the pipes, his grade here would easily move into ‘A’ territory. But he gets a B+ because his playoff performance left much to be desired.
Let’s not forget – the Sabres were linked to rumors about Winnipeg Jets superstar netminder Connor Hellebuyck. But if Buffalo does pull the trigger on that trade, you have to think Luukkonen would be the player going the other way, so long as Winnipeg isn’t on Luukkonen’s modified no-trade list.
But if that doesn’t happen, much of Buffalo’s season is going to be dependent on how well Luukkonen performs. The Sabres’ defense corps has undergone massive change this summer, and not for the better in the short-term. So Luukkonen will be leaned on at least as much next season, if not more than they leaned on him in seasons before then.
Luukkonen gave Buffalo a great regular-season performance last season. But the goaltending business is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately line of work – and the lasting memory of Luukkonen last season was him faltering when the games mattered most.
The Sabres may eventually go in another direction, but this series grades Buffalo’s performances last year, and Luukkonen’s efforts were a tale of two worlds. Luukkonen needs to be more consistent next season, because if he can’t, the Sabres will almost assuredly go with another goalie sooner than later.
