Steady Luukkonen Settling In As Sabres Starter

24-year-old netminder could be on Finland’s Olympic radar

The Buffalo Sabres have had their issues this season with consistency, injuries, and surprisingly generating offense after scoring nearly 300 goals last season, but one surprising positive has been the ascendence of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as their primary starting goalie.

With the decision to send rookie Devon Levi to the American Hockey League, a large part of the equation was the play of Luukkonen, who despite the club going 5-4-0 in his nine starts since January 1, has posted a microscopic 1.57 GAA and an impressive .943 save percentage.

"I feel like the team is playing well in front of me. The results are not what we want. From my perspective, I feel like we've been pretty solid defensively and that helps my game too." Luukkonen said on Thursday."Getting the extra amount of games, (and) getting starts in a row helps me. Once you get a couple of good starts in a row, it's easier to keep it rolling."

It has not been determined how long Levi will remain with AHL Rochester, but the suspicion is that with his play being inconsistent all season and his work being infrequent due to Luukkonen handling most of the workload, the 22-year-old will remain down past the March 8^th trade deadline to be on the AHL roster to be eligible for the Calder Cup Playoffs.

With his recent success, Luukkonen has potentially put himself in the mix to play for Finland in the 2026 Olympics in Milan, Italy. Nashville’s Juuse Saro is the likely leading candidate to be the primary starter for the Finns, but Luukkonen (who internationally won World Junior gold in 2019) could be in the mix with Joonas Korpisalo, Kaapo Kahkonen, and Ville Husso.

"That will be awesome. We have a lot of a lot of great goalies from Finland though, so when the time comes, we will see what their decision is."

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