The Blue and Gold have struggled to find a reliable goaltender since Buffalo traded Ryan Miller to the St. Louis Blues in 2014. Heading into this season, the Sabres hoped to use Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as a starter and Devon Levi as a backup. However, UPL’s numbers took a dive from last year, when he enjoyed a .910 SV% and 2.57 GAA. His 2024-2025 numbers as of this writing are .888 and 3.16, respectively.
Meanwhile, Levi went to Rochester after losing six of his first eight games in net. The Sabres claimed goalie James Reimer off waivers from the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 13 after Anaheim previously claimed him off waivers from Buffalo. Reimer currently has a . 910 SV% and 2.71 GAA, but the backup goalie only competed in 15 matchups so far this season.
So, it makes sense for the franchise to look elsewhere for goaltending talent. The Sabres recently made a move in that direction, signing Finnish goalie Topias Leinonen to a three-year, entry-level contract on Mar. 28.
Buffalo first drafted Leinonen in 2022 during the NHL Draft’s second round (41st overall). He played in Europe for the past four seasons and just finished with Mora IK of HockeyAllsvenskan, Sweden’s second-tier pro hockey league. Leinonen ended the year with a .910 SV% over 25 contests. His regular season stats in 2024-25 included a 2.31 GAA and a 2.18 GAA during six postseason games.
The 6-foot 5-inch netminder also represented Finland during the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he played 10 games and had an .877 SV%. In addition, he competed for Finland at the 2022 IIHF World U18 Championships, where his numbers were an .897 SV% and 2.61 GAA over five matchups.
Signing Leinonen signals the Sabres are looking past Luukkonen and taking a chance on another young Finnish prospect. Yet there’s no guarantee Leinonen will do any better in front of Buffalo’s net than UPL, Levi or Reimer have. Luukkonen was a solid talent in Finland but hasn’t quite worked out since he came to the NHL.
Leinonen could be another young player who looked great to Sabres’ talent scouts but ends up getting beat facing hockey’s best offensive opponents. However, with Buffalo suffering through the league’s longest playoff drought and fans seriously soured on the team’s ownership and management, rolling the dice on a new prospect could be the right decision.