Alex Lyon
Buffalo Sabres Goaltender #34
Undrafted, thirty-three, and finished the season going the wrong way.
| Season | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 36 | 20 | 10 | 4 | 92 | 2.77 | 3 | 979 | .906 |
| Career | 149 | 71 | 48 | 15 | 395 | 2.93 | 7 | 4067 | .903 |
Last Season
Thirty-six appearances — one more than Luukkonen — 20-10-4, a 2.77 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage with three shutouts. His career figure is .9029 across 149 games.
The Physical Game
Six foot one, which is small for a modern goaltender, and he compensates by challenging further out than most. When the puck comes from distance he is very good; when it moves laterally and he has to cover ground from a deeper position, less so.
He is athletic rather than technically pretty, and there are nights that shows in both directions.
The Mental Game
An undrafted goaltender with 149 NHL games has been told no repeatedly and kept turning up, which is its own qualification. He has been a backup, an emergency starter and a starter, and he has not visibly minded which.
The Intangibles
The two numbers that matter sit at opposite ends of the season. Across the year, .906 and three shutouts — a perfectly good campaign, better than the league median of .896.
Over his last ten appearances, .880 on 234 shots, while the man he is splitting the job with was stopping .922. One of them was warming up and the other was cooling, and the club has to decide how much of that to believe.
He is 33. Buffalo outscored its expected goals by 41 last season, the most in the league, and that will not repeat. The goaltending has to be better than it was in March.