Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams wasn’t shy in sharing a positive opinion on the Blue and Gold’s current goaltenders.
We know the Buffalo Sabres are going to make a move, and a big move, for one of two positions: Goaltender or defenseman, but not both. And per Adams’ recent comments, the honor will go to the blue line, which could be the missing piece for this Sabres team.
And while I wouldn’t expect him to say anything else, the following snippet from Adams nonetheless holds truth in it. Check it out below:
"“Absolutely, I personally believe we’re in a position of strength when it comes to this. “We feel that we have three NHL goaltenders, which is a great thing to have, so we’re open-minded whether we go into the season with three. It’s not an ideal situation, but we’ll let it play itself out.” – via WGRZ"
Given the play of the goaltenders last season sans Devon Levi and for the most part, that of the recently-retired Craig Anderson, you may be wondering why Adams believes in the goaltending unit so much. One reason is that the defensive rotation was terrible behind Rasmus Dahlin, Mattias Samuelsson, and Owen Power.
Dahlin, Samuelsson, and Power are proven assets whose value will increase moving forward, but neither Ilya Lyubushkin, Henri Jokiharju, Jacob Bryson, Kale Clague, nor Riley Stillman gave us a shred of hope. Far too often, opponents either got behind the defense on breakaways, or they set up odd-man-rushes, and it resulted in the Sabres allowing more goals than they scored.
Buffalo Sabres need defense, not goaltenders
Say what you will about Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Yeah, his numbers were bad last season, but let’s stop pretending he didn’t have a solid stretch of games between mid-December and throughout January. That showed all of us that he’s more than capable of being a serviceable NHL goaltender.
Sure, you may say that Levi was productive even behind that same rotation, but let’s consider the facts: Very few goaltenders have or will play to Levi’s caliber. He was one of the best goaltenders in the history of college hockey, and he, at least for the time being, bypassed playing in the AHL. Levi excelled at every level of hockey he’s ever played, and he will excel in the NHL.
Luukkonen isn’t Devon Levi and he never will be. But you can say the same for nearly the rest of the NHL’s goaltenders aged 24 and under. Or you will once Levi’s played in his first full season with a playoff-caliber top four in front of him.