Buffalo Sabres: Why rolling with Levi, Luukkonen, makes sense for 2023

There is some outrage among the Buffalo Sabres community for general manager Kevyn Adams’ unwillingness to acquire a goaltender in 2023.

Following the NHL Draft and the initial free agent frenzy, the Buffalo Sabres top two goaltenders are still Devon Levi and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. While this has come to the dismay of many fans, it’s also easy to see why general manager Kevyn Adams is going in this direction.

Sure, I may’ve said the Sabres would trade Luukkonen, I won’t lie, but only because at the time, I figured Adams may want someone more experienced to step in alongside Levi. Trading Luukkonen in such a case would have reduced a potential controversy if he stepped into camp and made a leap in production.

But here we are, a good three weeks after I concocted that piece, with no new NHL-caliber goaltenders on the roster. In hindsight, it makes sense that Adams has faith in the Levi-Luukkonen combo for a few reasons.

For one, we know that no one has broken down the Sabres more than Adams, head coach Don Granato, and their respective staffs. If they felt the Blue and Gold needed an upgrade, they would have either traded for or signed a goaltender as opposed to picking up a pair of defensemen.

Many fans forget just how good Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was for a stretch, and that his efforts in January 2023 earned him Rookie of the Month. Sure, he tailed off not long after winning the award, but he nonetheless showed he could be effective in the crease. He also enjoyed a solid stint in 2021-22 before injuries sidelined him, so it comes as no surprise as to why Adams has faith in him.

Buffalo Sabres right to roll with potential Levi-Luukkonen combo

As for Levi, you could put a patchwork defensive rotation in front of him and he’d probably still yield you solid results. We saw it at times last season during his seven-game sample size and as Mike Harrington of Buffalo News pointed out, when you take away the six goals he allowed in the Buffalo Sabres late season win against the Detroit Red Wings, he logged a 0.921 save percentage and a 2.47 GAA.

And it wasn’t like Levi was bad in that Detroit game. In one of his allowed goals, the Red Wings caught Rasmus Dahlin sleeping near the crease. Another allowed goal was a freak incident in which a Red Wings player shot the puck wide, yet it ricocheted off Owen Power’s leg and into the net.

With two new solid chess pieces on defense ahead of Levi, you’re going to see him look more like the goaltender who pulled off the 0.921 save percentage and 2.47 GAA in the other six games. As for Luukkonen, he showed us he can be an effective goaltender, and he played about as well as most goaltenders would have behind that poor excuse of a defensive rotation where Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson, mind you, were either playing hurt or missing time for a few good portions.

This often left the rookie in Owen Power as the healthiest, and therefore the top blueliner in the rotation. And there was no one behind him worth getting excited over, evidenced via the fact Adams acted swiftly last Saturday when he signed Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton.

With a better defense in front of them, expect an improvement from Luukkonen while Levi continues to build on his successful seven-game stretch from last season. Sure, there’s risk involved, with just 53 NHL games between the two, but if this rotation manages to stay healthy in 2023-24, you can expect more than a fair share of solid performances from both goaltenders.

Source: Mike Harrington: The Sabres are comfortable with their goaltending, but the fans are not. We’ll see who’s right, BuffaloNews.com