Few members of the Buffalo Sabres roster have played a bigger role in the team's emergence as an Eastern Conference playoff contender than goaltender Alex Lyon.
The 33-year-old journeyman netminder has compiled a 2.72 goals against average and .912 save percentage across 27 games. He kept Buffalo competitive early in the season while the rest of the team struggled and his standout performances continued as the Blue and Gold climbed the standings.
Now people from outside Western New York are beginning to acknowledge his terrific play. Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic placed Lyon ninth in his ranking of the NHL's top Vezina Trophy candidates at the league's Olympic break.
Few would have predicted the Minnesota native would find himself on a list headlined by the New York Islanders' Ilya Sorokin and Tampa Bay Lightning's Andrei Vasilevskiy when the Sabres signed him as goalie depth back in July.
Lyon has played so well that trade rumors, which popped up earlier in the campaign, have faded away because he's simply too important to the club's success.
How will the Buffalo Sabres juggle Alex Lyon, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Colten Ellis for the rest of the 2025-26 NHL season?
Sabres general manager Jarmo Kekalainen admitted after he inherited the front office from Kevyn Adams in mid-December that a three-goalie rotation on the active roster isn't ideal. There simply aren't enough practice reps and game starts to go around.
Yet, all three of Buffalo's goaltenders have stepped up since the club started to turn its season around with a Dec. 9 win over the Edmonton Oilers. The Blue and Gold have posted a 21-5-2 record since that point to surge up the East standings into a wild-card position.
Here are their individual stats during the red-hot stretch that has included injury absences for all three netminders:
- Alex Lyon: .925 SV% in 13 games
- Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen: .916 SV% in 11 games
- Colten Ellis: .903 SV% in six games
So, it's easy to see why Kekalainen has continued to delay the goalie decision.
Lyon has been nothing short of fantastic, UPL has shown signs for regaining his 2023-24 form and Ellis is a rookie who compiled a save percentage over .920 the past two years in the AHL while in the St. Louis Blues organization.
There would be an element of risk associated with moving on from any member of the trio, and the Sabres are in a position where it's probably best not to rock the boat too hard given their recent success.
Assuming Luukkonen, who was forced to miss the Olympics with Team Finland because of an ill-timed lower-body injury, is healthy when NHL play resumes, it'll probably be mostly a timeshare between UPL and Lyon down the stretch of the regular season.
Head coach Lindy Ruff will still have to find a few spots to get Ellis involved, though. You don't want him spending an extended stretch in the press box and then suddenly he gets thrown into a crucial late-season game because of injuries.
It's a tricky situation because there aren't any throwaway contests in a close playoff race, and Buffalo needs its strong play between the pipes to continue to clinch its first postseason berth since 2011.
One thing's for sure: The Sabres wouldn't be in such a promising position if not for Lyon, who's elevated his game to a level not seen from the Yale product since he helped carry the Florida Panthers to the playoffs with a standout string of starts late in the 2022-23 campaign.
He won't win the Vezina Trophy, but it's nice to see him finally getting the recognition he deserves by at least being mentioned as part of the award conversation.