This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Alex Lyon
Buffalo Sabres Goaltender
An .8965 in 30 games at 32, brought in to make sure the club has a second goaltender it can play.
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 | PHI | 11 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 22 | 2.75 | 0 | 232 | .905 |
| 2018-19 | PHI | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 5.08 | 0 | 31 | .806 |
| 2019-20 | PHI | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 3.55 | 0 | 73 | .890 |
| 2020-21 | PHI | 6 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 3.33 | 0 | 169 | .893 |
| 2021-22 | CAR | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 2.93 | 0 | 65 | .908 |
| 2022-23 | FLA | 15 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 43 | 2.89 | 1 | 488 | .912 |
| 2023-24 | DET | 44 | 21 | 18 | 5 | 127 | 3.05 | 2 | 1325 | .904 |
| 2024-25 | DET | 30 | 14 | 9 | 1 | 73 | 2.81 | 1 | 705 | .896 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 113 | 51 | 38 | 11 | 303 | 2.99 | 4 | 3088 | .902 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
14-9-1 in 30 games, .8965 with a 2.81 average and 1 shutout on 705 shots with Detroit.
An .8965 is a below-average number and it was better than either goaltender Buffalo used. That is the reason he was signed.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 199, which is small for the modern position, and the game compensates with aggression rather than technique — he challenges further out than most, cuts down angles, and lives with the consequences on a lateral play.
The rebound control is adequate and the recovery is quick. He is at his best in a run of games where he can find rhythm, and at his worst cold.
The Mental Game
Undrafted, ten years of being told he was a minor-league goaltender, and a playoff run in Florida that made him briefly famous. He does not appear to be affected by anything.
The most reliable thing about him is that a bad night does not become a bad month, which is the actual skill required of a backup.
The Intangibles
At 32, on a cheap deal, doing the job he is suited to.
Buffalo’s goaltending was 26th in the league and the club’s answer was a backup who has never had a save percentage above .910 in a full season. That is a modest answer to a large problem, and it is not clear the organisation has another one.
What kind of player
The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.
- a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
- ordinaryraised, and called ordinary
Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.
“he challenges further out than most, cuts down angles, and lives with the consequences on a lateral play”
“The rebound control is adequate”
“the recovery is quick”
“Undrafted, ten years of being told he was a minor-league goaltender, and a playoff run in Florida that made him briefly famous.”