Last night was another prime example of why the Buffalo Sabres cannot afford to be trading away their top goalie before the April 12th trade deadline. Instead, the Sabres should look into the possibility of bringing in a steady backup goalie in a trade within the next three days. It seems multiple teams are inquiring about trade possibilities with Buffalo, and I feel a quality goalie should be something the Sabres expect in return.
Linus Ullmark has been the clear number one goalie in Buffalo this season, and he should be someone that the Sabres want to keep around after this year. He has proven that he can be a quality starting goaltender in the NHL this season. In 18 games started this year, Ullmark has a .916 save percentage and allows 2.62 goals per game. These numbers aren’t anything amazing, but given how poor the Sabres defense is, they are certainly not awful either.
But the backup goalie position is where things get ugly for the Sabres. Buffalo is currently on their third different backup goalie on the season. And with the injury that sidelined Ullmark for multiple weeks, we got the see how good the Sabres goalie depth was. Well, it isn’t good.
The Sabres chose to move on from one of their backup goalies, Jonas Johansson, as they traded him to Colorado for a 6th round pick in this upcoming NHL draft. Johansson struggled mightily for Buffalo this season, so it was no surprise to see him go.
Now Buffalo is left with Dustin Tokarski and Carter Hutton to fill the backup goalie role behind Linus Ullmark. Hutton came to Buffalo in a trade after a career year with the Blues but has never been able to replicate that success for the Sabres. This year he holds a .886 save percentage and is allowing 3.47 goals per game in 13 games played. Tokarski isn’t much different. Although he does have a much smaller sample size of just five games played, he has a save percentage of .899 and allows 3.86 goals per game.
Both of these goalies have shown flashes of being worthy of a backup role, but neither of them should be the Sabres’ long-term plan for the future at that position. Buffalo should look to add some stellar goalie depth to their roster before next season. At least to bridge the gap until top goalie prospect Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is ready for the NHL.