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Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Eric Comrie Out Multiple Weeks With Lower-Body Injury

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It’s Craig Anderson and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen for the next little while. Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams told reporters including Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News that Eric Comrie will be out for multiple weeks with a lower-body injury.

While injury is certainly not what you’re hoping for, sitting Comrie down for a little while might not be the worst thing for the Sabres. The 27-year-old goaltender was getting his first run as a starter in the NHL and struggling to find much consistency, posting an .887 save percentage through 11 games. Without strong goaltending, the Sabres started getting shelled on the scoresheet, and have lost seven in a row.

Comrie isn’t completely to blame but the Sabres obviously needed to change something to get the ship righted. Perhaps the recall of Luukkonen can be the spark they need to get things turned around. The young netminder was once considered the sure-fire goaltender of the future for the Sabres, and while that title may have been passed on to 20-year-old Northeastern superstar Devon Levi, there should still be plenty of excitement for Luukkonen.

Now 23, he actually has a .913 save percentage in 13 NHL appearances, despite his AHL numbers not looking quite as strong. The 6’5″ netminder has huge potential to be a starter at the highest level if he can put things together, and will get a chance now to really show what he can do. With a back-to-back situation coming up next week – the team plays the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday and the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday – both netminders will be needed.

Buffalo Sabres Recall Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

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After allowing 33 goals in their last seven games, losing all of them, the Buffalo Sabres look like they will also be without their starting goaltender for a little while. After Eric Comrie was injured against the Ottawa Senators, the team recalled Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen from the minor leagues.

While there has been no update yet on Comrie’s status, the recall of Luukkonen suggests that he’ll be out for a little while. The Sabres don’t play again until Saturday, meaning a decision wouldn’t have been necessary yet if it was a day-to-day issue. The Sabres are on the road, but rather close to home in Toronto for a match with the Maple Leafs this weekend.

Luukkonen, who has been a top prospect in the Sabres system for several years now, had a chance to play a handful of games in each of the last two seasons. His .913 save percentage during those 13 games is encouraging, even if his minor league performance hasn’t been quite as strong.

If he can come anywhere close to that number for the Sabres this time around, they’ll be overjoyed. The team is getting absolutely caved in of late, and Comrie now has an .887 save percentage on the year. After starting the season extremely strong, the Sabres are now 7-10 overall and have allowed by far the most goals in the Atlantic Division.

While Craig Anderson has done fine in his backup role, it’s hard to expect the 41-year-old goaltender to really carry the load at this point in his career. If Comrie is out for a while, that means Luukkonen will be used and relied on to turn things around in Buffalo.

Buffalo Sabres Sign Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

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The Buffalo Sabres have signed goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to a two-year deal with a cap hit of $837,500, the team announced via Twitter on Wednesday. The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski reports that the second year of the deal is one-way, when Luukkonen also becomes eligible for waivers.

Luukkonen split the 2021-22 season between the Sabres and their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, coming up to Buffalo when injuries decimated their goaltending depth this season. Luukkonen battled through some injuries himself, something that’s unfortunately becoming a common theme, but still managed to get into 35 games for Rochester last season. There, he compiled a 15-14-8 record, .900 save percentage, and one shutout.

Those numbers don’t seem that impressive — and they aren’t — but he did have a much better NHL showing, albeit in a brief amount of appearances. Luukkonen actually had a .917 save percentage mark in nine NHL games, recording his second and third career NHL wins in the process.

After the Sabres retained both Craig Anderson and Malcolm Subban while also signing free agent Eric Comrie, Luukkonen is destined for another year in Rochester in 2022-23. It’s not the worst place for him, though, as he needs to show more consistency and solid improvement in the AHL before he’s ready to get a real full-time look in the NHL. With this likely being the last season of Anderson’s NHL career, Luukkonen could very well be ready for that full-time NHL job in 2023-24 during the second season of this new contract.

Buffalo Sabres Sign Michael Houser; Update Injury Statuses

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The Buffalo Sabres are going to have a goaltending tandem of Aaron Dell and Michael Houser for a while. The team has signed the latter to a new one-year contract worth $750K at the NHL level, after announcing that Malcolm Subban, Dustin Tokarski, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen are all out at least on a week-to-week basis. Subban will be even longer than that, as he’s listed month-to-month with an upper-body injury. Craig Anderson remains out month-to-month as well.

Houser, 29, was in a similar situation last season when he signed a one-year, league-minimum deal with the Sabres on March 19 to provide some emergency cover. The organization has refused to add more NHL depth to the position and now will be stuck once again with a netminder who has spent more time in the ECHL than the AHL.

Over a long mostly minor league career, Houser has made 213 appearances in the ECHL, 88 in the AHL, and four in the NHL. His save percentages at all three are above .900, but it’s hard to believe he could really carry the load for the Sabres and have them stay competitive in the tough Atlantic Division.

Dell meanwhile has also been recalled from the AHL, while Jack Quinn and Casey Fitzgerald were sent back to Rochester. The 32-year-old veteran netminder has been brutal this season during his time in Buffalo, posting an .872 save percentage and 4.52 goals-against-average. He’s been better in the AHL, but his time in the NHL appears to be running out.

The Sabres, now 10-19-6 on the season, have lost six straight and now own a -33 goal differential.

Dustin Tokarski Placed In COVID Protocol

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Malcolm Subban can’t get to the Buffalo Sabres fast enough. The team has announced that Dustin Tokarski has been placed in the COVID protocol, forcing them to recall Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen from the AHL. Buffalo made a trade for Subban earlier today but will have to go with Luukkonen and Aaron Dell until he arrives.

Casey Mittelstadt has also been activated from injured reserve ahead of tonight’s game against the Florida Panthers.

It’s certainly not an ideal situation for Buffalo, given that Tokarski was the more reliable of the two they currently had healthy and in the NHL. The 32-year-old journeyman has a .903 save percentage in 14 appearances this season, compared to Dell’s brutal .862 in five games. While Luukkonen was always supposed to take over the net at some point, the issue so far has been his own struggles in the minor leagues. The 22-year-old netminder has an .888 in 12 appearances with the Rochester Americans, and adding Subban was very clearly about allowing the Sabres to keep him in the AHL to develop further.

Now with Tokarski out that’s not possible, at least for today. The team did not confirm whether Tokarski has tested positive for coronavirus, but if he has and is experiencing any symptoms, he’ll be held out for a minimum of ten days. That would mean at least five games, meaning when Subban does arrive, he very well may immediately become the NHL starter for the next little while.

Michael Houser To Make NHL Debut

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The Buffalo Sabres will have an unfamiliar face in net tonight when they take on the New York Islanders. Michael Houser will make his NHL debut after nearly a decade in the minor leagues, playing mostly in the ECHL.

The undrafted goaltender spent three seasons with the London Knights of the OHL and made his professional debut with the Cincinnati Cyclones in 2012. Since then he has been shipped around, suiting up for the San Antonio Rampage, Ontario Reign, Manchester Monarchs, Cleveland Monsters, Fort Wayne Komets, and Tucson Roadrunners. He has spent basically this whole season as a practice goaltender, not even seeing any action for the Rochester Americans. Houser’s last appearance was in March 2020 with the ECHL’s Cyclones.

Coming into the season, an NHL debut wasn’t even a possibility for Houser. The minor league veteran had signed an AHL deal meaning he couldn’t even serve as the taxi squad netminder. But after injuries started to pile up, the Sabres signed Houser to his first NHL deal on March 19 and kept him as the third goaltender while the rest of his position peers were coming in and out with various injuries. Now, after the latest Sabres netminder, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen suffered a lower-body injury on Saturday, Houser will get the chance of a lifetime.

Grinding in the ECHL isn’t glamourous, but Houser has managed to make 255 appearances there over his long minor league career. He was named Goaltender of the Year in 2019 after posting a .922 save percentage, going 29-7-5 in the process. Excellence isn’t anything new to Houser, who was once named not only goalie of the year in the OHL but won the Red Tilson Trophy as the most outstanding player. It’s been a very long road since then, but the 28-year-old will now be in an NHL net for the first time.

The Sabres have also been given an exemption from the league in order to sign Stefanos Lekkas to a professional tryout. The 25-year-old undrafted netminder is in his first professional season after four years at the University of Vermont. He could serve as backup for Houser tonight, but won’t actually get an entry-level deal.

Debut Notes: Jones, Luukkonen, Foligno

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The New York Rangers will have another exciting young defenseman in the lineup tonight when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers. Head coach David Quinn confirmed that Zac Jones will make his NHL debut, skating on the right side with Libor Hajek. Jones recently signed his entry-level contract after winning the national championship with UMass and will jump right into the fire of the NHL.

The 20-year-old defenseman scored 24 points in 29 games this season for the Minutemen and has quickly risen from mid-round lottery ticket to potential impact NHL player. Selected in the third round in 2019, the 5’10” Jones is a dynamic playmaker who glides smoothly around the ice controlling play in every inch of the rink. It’s hard to expect him to be as dominant right away for the Rangers, but he’ll get his first chance to show what he can do tonight.

  • It likely won’t be tonight, but Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is getting close to his NHL debut as well. The Buffalo Sabres goaltending prospect will back up Dustin Tokarski for the team tonight but is expected to start tomorrow’s game against the Boston Bruins in the second half of a back-to-back. The 22-year-old netminder has long been a top prospect and was selected 54th overall in 2017. In his one year of CHL hockey, he not only won the OHL Goaltender of the Year award but the Red Tilson Trophy as the league’s most outstanding player as well. He has been slowly built up in the Sabres development system since, spending time in the ECHL, AHL and even a short time back in Finland, but now will get his chance to see some NHL rubber.
  • If you could pick a pair of linemates to skate beside in your first game for a new team, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner aren’t bad choices. That’s what Nick Foligno is expected to get tonight as he makes his Toronto Maple Leafs debut, after serving his seven-day quarantine. Foligno came off the COVID Protocol Related Absences list and is ready to go, but tried to temper expectations by noting he hasn’t played in ten days. Expectations be damned; the Maple Leafs need a more consistent effort from their group after losing the last five games and barely holding onto their North Division lead.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen Will Start Season In Finland

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The Buffalo Sabres have an obvious goaltender of the future. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has all the skills to become one of the very elite goaltenders in the NHL, but he’s not quite ready yet.

In 2018-19, his first season in North America, Luukkonen put up a .920 save percentage in 53 games for the Subury Wolves and won the OHL Most Outstanding Player award. He also backstopped Finland to a World Junior gold medal, posting a .932 save percentage in the process. While 2019-20 didn’t go quite as smoothly, Luukkonen was still a star for the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones as he continued his development at the professional level.

Now, with the start of the minor league season uncertain, Luukkonen will return to Finland and begin the year with TPS. The Sabres have loaned him to the Liiga club, though the announcement from TPS indicates it is only for the four to six weeks they will be without Rasmus Tirronen as he deals with an injury.

The 21-year old Finn has the size (6’4″), control and athleticism to be a star in the NHL, but we’ll have to wait a little longer before seeing him suit up for the Sabres.

Sabres Sign Oskari Laaksonen To Three-Year, Entry-Level Deal

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The Buffalo Sabres announced the signing of defenseman Oskari Laaksonen to a three-year contract, per the team. Laaksonen joins Buffalo on an entry-level contract after the team made him a third-round pick in the 2017 draft.

Since being drafted 89th overall by the Sabres, Laaksonen, 20, has spent the past three seasons with Ilves of the Finnish Elite League. Laaksonen recorded 12 points for the Ilves over 46 games this past season. He also won a gold medal with Team Finland at the 2019 World Junior Championship while skating alongside another Sabres’ youngster, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. 

Laaksonen’s stock jumped shortly after the draft, and the young puck-mover has continued to impress during his time in his native Finland. He had signed a two-year deal with the Ilves, putting doubt into whether he’d be ready to make the jump to the NHL. But evidently, he’s ready.

The deal comes on the heels of the Sabres learning that they’d lost defenseman Lawrence Pilut to the KHL. Pilut, 24, looked like a potential building block for the Sabres, who instead now transition the future of their defence to Laaksonen. Included in the press release announcing the signing was a comment from Sabres’ GM Jason Botterill, who said, “The work Oskari has put in to improve his game has paid off during his last two seasons. His success on the international stage and what he’s done as a 19- and 20-year-old playing in a professional league is impressive.”

The Sabres finished the year in sixth place of the Atlantic Division, on the outside looking in for the upcoming 24-team playoff. Buffalo hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2010-2011 season, the second of back-to-back losses in the quarterfinals to the Flyers and Bruins, respectively.

Eastern Notes: Mantha, Johansson, Dobson, Paul

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The Detroit Red Wings lost Filip Zadina for two to three weeks, but the team did get a boost of good news as winger Anthony Mantha practiced with the first time since he suffered a mid-body injury on Dec. 21 against Toronto when Jake Muzzin slammed him to the ice, according to NHL.com’s Dana Wakiji. The 25-year-old was wearing an orange no-contact jersey, but it’s step in the right direction for the winger who has appeared in just 29 games this season.

“I’m feeling better,” Mantha said. “Obviously today was the first practice with the team, so it feels good mentally. Physically, I’ve been getting better over the last couple of weeks. I can’t complain.”

Mantha was playing well, posting 12 goals and 24 points in those 29 games and was looking to potentially post career highs, but now will look to help the Red Wings offense, which has struggled for most of the year.

  • In his most recent mailbag, the Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski writes that the Buffalo Sabres might be interested in taking a long look at 24-year-old prospect goaltender Jonas Johansson, who will be a restricted free agent next year and could be a candidate to replace Carter Hutton next season if he fares well, assuming they can move Hutton. Johansson has played well with the Rochester Americans this year, posting a 2.19 GAA and a .925 save percentage in 20 games. The team might also want to avoid keeping Johansson in Rochester next year, which could block the path when top goalie prospect Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen becomes a full-time AHL goalie.
  • When the New York Islanders lost defenseman Adam Pelech for the season due to an Achilles’ tendon injury, many thought that rookie Noah Dobson would be the recipient of the extra minutes that the team lost. Instead, Newsday’s Andrew Gross writes that head coach Barry Trotz has relied on his five veteran blueliners and continues to hold Dobson out of key moments in games. Dobson doesn’t play in the third period at all in tight games. The five veterans are forced to take extra shifts in order to replace Dobson, who refers to the situation as five and a half defenders, but doesn’t feel the extra ice time is having a negative effect on the other five defenders.
  • Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch reports that Ottawa Senators forward Nick Paul is skating again and should be able to return at some point this week. The 24-year-old suffered a high ankle sprain on Jan. 7 against the Capitals and deemed to be out for four weeks, which is right on schedule. Paul has six goals and 13 points in 38 games this season.

 

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