While Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s 2023-24 season didn’t give us flashbacks of what we’ve seen from Dominik Hasek and Ryan Miller from back in the day, his improvement was nonetheless legendary. In 2023-24, Luukkonen’s save percentage transformed from a meager 0.891 to a 0.910, and his GAA increased (in a good way) by 1.04.
Not to mention, he shut opponents out five times in his 51 starts, five more than he obtained in his first 46 career starts between 2020-21 and 2022-23. Further, his quality starts percentage increased by a respectable 0.261, so it’s normal for anyone, even the average NHL fan, to realize Luukkonen will build on his successful 2023-24 outing this season.
But he’s also caught the attention of others in the NHL universe, including Jacob Punturi of SI.com, who included Luukkonen alongside Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues and Luke Hughes of the New Jersey Devils as one of three players “who will build off strong 2023.”
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will have a lot of help in 2024-25
While the Sabres were rather bland in their free agency odyssey earlier in the month, we still can’t deny that their bottom-six is a lot better than it was on paper heading into last season. Jordan Greenway, Ryan McLeod, (maybe) Jason Zucker, Sam Lafferty, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Peyton Krebs, and Beck Malenstyn all boast a physical game and one that should give opposing forwards headaches when they’re on the ice.
Last season, Luukkonen didn’t have that luxury, and he was often left to play the role of “hero” when the Sabres broke down defensively. Further, while the defensive rotation is still young, every player on it will be returning from last season, even if they only spent a limited time with the team, like Ryan Johnson and Bowen Byram.
The latter is stability that will bode well for team chemistry, and it also helps that one of the best blueliners in the league, Rasmus Dahlin, is also part of the Blue and Gold’s rotation. Overall, I’ll confidently say that Luukkonen more than belongs on Jacob Punturi’s list, and I would be very surprised if Luukkonen didn’t end the 2024-25 season as a top 10, and perhaps even a top-five, goaltender.
(Statistics powered by Hockey-Reference)