This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Buffalo Sabres Goaltender
Six foot five, a .9102 with five shutouts, and the first season of his career in which the crease was his.
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | BUF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 14 | 3.88 | 0 | 149 | .906 |
| 2021-22 | BUF | 9 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 23 | 2.74 | 0 | 277 | .917 |
| 2022-23 | BUF | 33 | 17 | 11 | 4 | 115 | 3.61 | 0 | 1054 | .891 |
| 2023-24 | BUF | 54 | 27 | 22 | 4 | 132 | 2.57 | 5 | 1470 | .910 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 100 | 47 | 41 | 10 | 284 | 2.98 | 5 | 2950 | .904 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 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
27-22-4 with a .9102, a 2.57 average and 5 shutouts in 54 games, facing 1,470 shots.
The club’s goaltending came in 16.4 goals better than the chances faced, 6th in the league, behind a defence that was 25th at suppressing them. He is the reason.
He had a career .9037 across 100 games coming into it, and had never played more than twenty-five in a season.
The Physical Game
6-5 and 223, and he plays deep and large. He sets at the top of the crease and lets the frame take the top of the net away rather than moving for it, and he is square almost without exception.
The rebound control is good — a club that concedes 159 goals at five-on-five against an expectation of 175.4 is not giving up many second chances, and behind the 25th-ranked chance suppression in the league that is entirely him.
The lateral recovery is the cost of the style and it is a real one. He is beaten across the slot more often than a smaller goaltender would be, and a play that moves side to side is the way to get him.
The Mental Game
Fifty-four games on a club that finished twenty-second, more than a third of them lost, and the save percentage did not fall away in the second half.
He is 25 and had spent four seasons as somebody’s second goaltender. Five shutouts in a first real season is the thing to keep hold of.
The Intangibles
Fifty-fourth overall in 2017, out of Finland, and 100 games and a career .9037 before this season.
A club that was helped by its goaltending and finished twenty-second anyway has one honest asset on this page, and it is him. He is 25, the crease is his, and the number to beat next year is his own.