The unlikely rise of the Sabres most obscure goaltender

Preseason can be a fun time in the NHL, and I don’t care if I’m the only fan out there who has that opinion. But for many, preseason represents the waiting game until the games start to matter, but it’s also a time when you can watch some of the organization’s most obscure players. For the Sabres, it’s goaltender Michael Houser, who has seemingly been connected to the organization forever. 

If you don’t know him, Houser has almost exclusively spent his career in the AHL and ECHL. Last season, he was with the Jacksonville Icemen, the Sabres ECHL affiliate, where he posted two shutouts, won 10 games and finished with a 0.907 save percentage and a 2.56 GAA. 

He saw seven games in Rochester, and despite posting a pedestrian 0.871 save percentage and 3.39 GAA, Houser still finished 3-1-1. In 2022-23, he mainly played in Rochester, backing up Malcolm Subban, but between 2020-21 and 2021-22, he saw just a handful of NHL action. 

The COVID pandemic and injuries played a major part in Houser’s rise into the NHL spotlight, and for a guy whose career looked destined to be nothing more than a mid-grade minor league hockey player, he sure didn’t play like one. Let’s start in the 2020-21 season, in which Houser saw action in four games. 

Michael Houser rose to brief stardom with the Sabres a few years back

During the 2020-21 season, Houser garnered a poor 3.46 GAA, but you may remember that he won two of his four starts in what was his age-28 season. He also put up a quality starts percentage of 0.750, and his save percentage was 0.901, not bad considering how poorly the Sabres played that season. 

Fast-forward to 2021-22, and you may remember the Blue and Gold lost just about every netminder imaginable for a while that season, forcing them to once again play Houser. This time, he started just two games, but he won them both while posting an incredible 0.948 save percentage, a 2.00 GAA, and a 1.000 quality starts percentage. 

Through six career games, Houser’s numbers are currently a 0.917 save percentage, a 2.97 GAA, and an 0.833 quality starts percentage. Not bad at all for someone whose primary role throughout his career was organizational depth. 

So, despite the obvious B-squad the Sabres brought to Pittsburgh tonight, Houser’s presence in the net piqued my interest. And the reason behind it is simple: Every time I see him in a Sabres uniform, albeit briefly, I remember what was a pretty good six-game run with the big club across two NHL seasons.