Sabres Summer Plans – Will They Sign Luukkonen To A Long-Term Deal?
The 25-year-old goalie made a career-high 51 starts and had a 2.57 GAA last season
© Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports - Sabres Summer Plans – Will They Sign Luukkonen To A Long-Term Deal?The Buffalo Sabres are expected to be a busy team this summer with Lindy Ruff returning as head coach and the pressure on GM Kevyn Adams is expected to pull out the stops to improve his roster. One move that could happen before July 1 is the buyout of winger Jeff Skinner. The reason for that would be Skinner’s unwillingness to waive his no-movement clause, and the Sabres beginning to see the decline in the 32-year-old’s performance, but another reason may be to clear most of his $9 million cap hit to re-sign other players.
Before the buyout window officially opens on Wednesday, we will take a look at where Adams may want to allocate the cap space freed up by a Skinner buyout. One of those moves could be an extension for goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
The 25-year-old was one of the bigger surprises of last season, as the year started with an expectation that rookie Devon Levi would be the primary starter. Luukkonen appeared to take the starter’s job in November, but an illness brought Levi back from AHL Rochester and the two split duties before the big Finn was given the job with Levi’s demotion in early January.
Luukkonen’s performance was one of the only reasons that the Sabres stayed within range of a playoff spot in the second half, finishing the year with a career-high 51 starts, a 27-22-4 record, 2.57 GAA, and a .910 save %. The good season came at an opportune time for him, with his two-year bridge deal expiring and two years away from unrestricted free agency.
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The Sabres could opt to take Luukkonen to arbitration and get him on another one-year deal to prove that his 2023 performance was not a fluke, but Adams appears convinced that he is capable of handling the primary netminding duties and has been in contact with agent Markus Lehto to negotiate a new deal.
"Those conversations started back during the season in March or so," Adams said earlier in the week. "(Ukko-Pekka) made it very clear he loves this team, loves the city, he wants to be here. We're excited about him, and we're going to work at it. We're continuing to have conversations last week, there'll be some more in Vegas."
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