Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen may be in Buffalo’s crease, but the trade buzz around him has never really let up.
The Sabres goalie said Friday he’s well aware of the rumors tied to his name, even if he doesn’t actively chase them down. The noise reaches him anyway.
“I think anybody who says that they don’t see it or they don’t read it, they’re lying,” Luukkonen said. “… It’s kind of, I think, a stupid mentality to kind of think that, ‘Oh, if I don’t see it, it’s not happening.’”
That chatter got a little louder this week until Friday’s blockbuster involving Connor Hellebuyck. The Winnipeg Jets dealt the star goalie, whom the Sabres reportedly pursued, to the New Jersey Devils. Luukkonen said the timing should help calm things down, and it came after Sabres general manager Jarmo Kekalainen had already spoken with him earlier in the week and publicly backed him.
Luukkonen appreciated the support, but he isn’t under any illusion about his place in the league.
“It doesn’t matter what anybody - my agent, GMs, coaches, my mom, my dad - says,” he said following Friday’s practice in KeyBank Center, shortly before the Hellebuyck trade was officially completed. “In the end, it’s you’re always available for getting moved.”
For Luukkonen, 27, this season has come with more scrutiny than any he’s faced in his six-year career. Every goal allowed seems to get picked apart. Every start gets graded like a final exam.
That’s only been amplified by a rough opening stretch for both him and the Sabres. He hasn’t been awful, but he also hasn’t found the kind of rhythm Buffalo needs behind a shaky defense.
He has allowed at least three goals in all seven of his starts, and his line sits at 3-3-2 with a 3.53 goals-against average and an .864 save percentage. The league average save percentage entering Friday’s schedule was .894.
Still, there’s been a more encouraging stretch underneath those raw numbers. Since replacing Colten Ellis early in the second period Oct. 12, Luukkonen has carried the load and has shown flashes of the form that made him so effective a year ago, when he went 22-9-3 with a 2.52 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage in 35 games.
Over his last five appearances, he’s gone 2-1-2 with a 3.22 goals-against average and an .895 save percentage.
The stat line doesn’t fully capture the timing of some of the saves he’s made, according to coach Lindy Ruff.
“There’s been just key saves and key times in the games for us that have really made a difference,” Ruff said. “We know that there’s kind of a threshold he gets to when he plays a number of games, and then we need to get somebody else in the net.
“But I think any time a goalie gets to roll a few games in a row, he gets a little bit of momentum if he starts to feel good about parts of his game.”
Luukkonen did not start more than three straight games last season while splitting work with Alex Lyon, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, and Ellis. But he said the last few outings have brought a clearer feel to his game.
“The games have been better,” he said. “The numbers are not what I want, not what we want, but still better than what the numbers show. I think the start of the season wasn’t the best the couple of first games there, and (I) kind of found a groove and … it’s feeling better now.”
He also pointed to cleaner team play in front of him as part of the improvement.
“You have more time to kind of figure out the details you want to kind of focus on,” Luukkonen said. “… They’re still happening, some rough edges on the game we got to clean up. But just overall, I think the details have been a lot better.”
Luukkonen is expected to make his fifth straight start Saturday against Alex Tuch and the Washington Capitals as Buffalo opens a four-game road trip. That matchup carries its own strange layer, since Tuch once was a key part of the Sabres’ locker room before being sent to Washington in a sign-and-trade deal on June 24, less than a week before he could have become a free agent.
Ruff called coaching against Tuch “strange.”
“For some guys, it’ll seem a little awkward at times,” he said.
Tuch, 30, has settled in quickly with the Capitals. Through nine games, he leads the team with five goals and seven points after signing an eight-year, $84 million contract.
The Baldwinsville native was a popular figure during his five seasons in Buffalo, and Tage Thompson made clear what it will feel like seeing him on the other side.
“He’s someone I was really close to on this team,” Thompson said. “Our families were really tight.
Obviously, a huge piece of our group when he was here. It’s kind of the business you’re in.
I think everyone’s gone through something like that … and you play against him, and it’s definitely a different feeling.”
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