Sabres Roster Decisions May Be Impacted By Vasilevskiy’s Injury

Injury to division rival’s goaltender may be a factor in Buffalo keeping three netminders

The Buffalo Sabres will be making their final cutdown after preseason matchups in Columbus on Wednesday and at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday. The club currently is at 29 players (16 forwards, 10 defensemen, and 3 goalies) after sending down Brett Murray, and first-rounders Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen on Wednesday. The Sabres have to get down to 23 players by Monday and GM Kevyn Adams faces some tricky roster decisions if the club chooses to keep three goaltenders in Devon Levi, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and Eric Comrie.

Levi based on his performance late last season and in training camp is the presumptive starter, while Luukkonen (who was wildly inconsistent in his first NHL campaign and did not look good in a loss to Toronto last week), and Comrie (who missed more than two months last season with a lower-body injury) are battling for the backup spot.

Adams opted over the summer not to add a veteran goalie via free agency or trade and indicated that while carrying three goalies was not ideal, it might be a reality. Head coach Don Granato said on Wednesday that is an eventuality he was prepared for.

"If we turn in our opening day lineup and it has those three players specifically on it, I have no issue and I don't see it as any negative from a challenging standpoint of how do you keep three happy and content. We'll see what happens, but I'm very comfortable with how all three have played to this point in camp and how they've all worked together and worked for this team." Granato said after practice on Wednesday. "They're hungry, they're young, they haven't played a lot of games in the NHL. Each and every day they're working to get better and they know they can get better."

Both Luukkonen and Comrie would have to clear waivers to be sent down to the American Hockey League (where the Rochester Americans already have veterans Dustin Tokarski and Devin Cooley in place), and that could result in one of them being claimed by another club.

Unlike many NHL teams, the Sabres are not crippled by cap constraints, but keeping all three goalies may force them to send down a waiver-exempt Peyton Krebs to keep 2023 first-rounder Zach Benson around and go with 12 forwards. 

The Sabres may have risked sending Comrie down had the news of Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy not occurred. The two-time Cup winner underwent back surgery last week and will be out for 8 to 10 weeks. The Lightning has limited flexibility under the cap since Vasilevskiy will return at some point, and GM Julien Brisebois undoubtedly will be scouring the waiver wire in search of an upgrade of his current tandem of former Sabre Jonas Johansson and former Canadian Olympian Matt Tomkins.

Tampa’s Atlantic Division rivals will especially will be looking to prevent helping them out by providing them an upgrade in goal, which likely means that the Sabres will start the season with a trio between the pipes.