Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

This Season So Far

The 2026-27 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

35 appearances, 22-9-3, a 2.52 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage with 1 shutout. His career figure across 190 games is .8998, so this was the best season he has had.

The Physical Game

6-5 and 223, and he uses all of it. He plays deep in his crease and relies on being large and square rather than on challenging shooters, which is a style that works until a team starts moving him laterally.

The improvement has been in the recovery. He gets across faster than he did 2 years ago and the second save is now a save more often than it was.

The Mental Game

He has been handed the job, lost it, and taken it back across 6 seasons in 1 organisation, which is a harder apprenticeship than most. The club has never had a settled answer in goal and he has spent his career being part of the question.

The Intangibles

The number that matters is at the end. Over his last 10 appearances he stopped .922 on 256 shots, while Alex Lyon — who played one more game than him across the season — finished at .880 on 234. One of them was getting warm and the other was cooling, and a printed annual could never have told you which.

Buffalo scored 41 goals more than its chances predicted last season, the most in the league, and that is not going to happen again. If this club is to hold its place, the goaltending has to carry more of it. He is 27 and playing the best hockey of his career at exactly the right moment.