Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman currently has three goalies on his active roster — Frederik Andersen, Tristan Jarry and former Buffalo Sabres prospect Devon Levi — and he tentatively expects that to remain the case when the 2026-27 season gets underway.
Bowman pointed to the success the Sabres (and Carolina Hurricanes) had with three-goalie rotations last season as the start of a likely evolution around the NHL.
"I think it's going to become more common in the coming years," Bowman said, per Mark Spector of Sportsnet. "Buffalo and Carolina … they both had a lot of success. It's been uncommon, for sure, in the past. But the way the schedule goes, in the modern game goalies just aren't playing 60, 70 games a year."
The Sabres entered the 2025-26 campaign with major goaltending questions. They claimed Colten Ellis off waivers from the St. Louis Blues to provide depth, and he combined with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Alex Lyon to post a .907 team save percentage, which ranked third in the NHL.
Carolina opened the year with Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov between the pipes but it was Brandon Bussi, another waiver acquisition, who emerged as the club's most dependable netminder. Bussi was between the pipes when the Canes captured this year's Stanley Cup title.
Aside from a handful of truly elite goalies, it's almost impossible to predict goaltending performance on a year-to-year basis. So, franchises are starting to improve their chances of finding a hot hand by carrying the extra netminder, which also helps keep them fresh by splitting starts.
The emergence of Ellis left Levi without a clear path forward in Buffalo and, since the two-time Mike Richter Award winner would have needed waivers next season, the Sabres decided to send him and a 2028 seventh-round draft pick to the Oilers for a 2028 third-round selection.
So, now Levi will get his NHL opportunity in Edmonton and, given Andersen's injury history and Jarry's struggles after arriving to the team last season, he'll have a real chance to carve out extensive playing time with a strong start to the new campaign.
Will the Buffalo Sabres change their goalie approach if they make a trade for the Winnipeg Jets' Connor Hellebuyck?
The Sabres have been linked to a possible Hellebuyck trade since before last month's 2026 NHL Draft and, while a blockbuster deal hasn't been completed, it's still a hot topic in the rumor mill.
If Buffalo did pull off such a high-profile acquisition, general manager Jarmo Kekalainen and head coach Lindy Ruff may at least consider moving away from the three-goalie approach for a few reasons.
First, Hellebuyck has averaged 62 starts over the past five years. Even if the Blue and Gold were planning a reduced workload, which wouldn't be a bad idea as the netminder hits his mid-30s, it's hard to imagine he'd play less than 55ish games as the club competes in a loaded Eastern Conference.
Second, the Sabres are dealing with a forward logjam. They'll have 15 players under contract up front once an agreement is reached with RFA center Peyton Krebs. They'd have an extra spot (14 instead of 13) to handle that situation if they drop back down to a standard two-goalie active roster.
Kekalainen could see whether a goalie-needy organization would give up a solid asset, likely a B-tier prospect or middle-round draft pick, for a battle-tested veteran Lyon and then sign Ellis to a short-term contract extension to serve as Hellebuyck's backup.
That'd give the front office a few years to see whether Ellis is a potential long-term answer in the crease, while also gauging the development of prospects like Topias Leinonen, Scott Ratzlaff, Yevgeni Prokhorov and Samuel Meloche.
Kekalainen hasn't sounded overly eager to overhaul the goalie depth chart, though.
"We've gotten good goaltending this year, too. It's an easy position to scrutinize and criticize," the Sabres GM told Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas last month on the 32 Thoughts podcast. "UPL had a .910 save percentage this year. Alex Lyon won a lot of games for us. Even Colten Ellis played some excellent hockey this year. So, I don't think goaltending by any means is a weakness of our team. I think it's a strength of our team."
So, it sounds like Buffalo would feel comfortable going forward with another season of the UPL, Lyon and Ellis triumvirate, and then the franchise can reassess the situation next summer.
Whether that's the best approach while the Sabres try to overcome a highly competitive Atlantic Division to emerge as a Stanley Cup contender is up for debate, but there are no guarantees with Hellebuyck either as he comes off a career-worst season.
So, it feels like Kekalainen will wait out Jets counterpart Kevin Cheveldayoff to see whether the previously sky-high asking price comes down a bit as the new campaign moves closer.
If not, Buffalo is prepared to run it back with a goaltending plan that clearly turned a lot of heads around the league last season.
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