Buffalo is Alex Lyon’s fifth NHL team. ©2025, Micheline Veluvolu

Four years ago, Sabres goalie Alex Lyon ignited NHL career by evolving: ‘Found another level of desperation’

The genesis of the Alex Lyon you’ve seen over the past four seasons – the goalie who won the Calder Cup, earned critical late-season victories for the Florida Panthers and played so well for the Detroit Red Wings that the Buffalo Sabres awarded him a two-year contract – can be traced to the 2021 offseason.

Following five years in the Philadelphia Flyers organization, he said the limited opportunities he found in free agency forced him to think about what he wanted to do in this world.

The lack of interest dealt Lyon, who signed with the Sabres last Tuesday as a free agent, a harsh dose of reality. Perhaps he had taken things a little bit for granted earlier in his career. He was prepared to play in the NHL, yet he possibly wasn’t doing enough to snag an opportunity.

The Yale product realized that to survive and thrive in hockey, he must develop a do-or-die mentality.

“I just found another level of desperation that I needed to play with, that I needed to train with, that I needed to have in my attitude,” Lyon said on a Zoom call Tuesday. “You kind of just understand that you’re fighting for your life every day.”

Lyon signed a two-way contract that summer with the Carolina Hurricanes. While he spent most of that season with their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, his new mindset quickly changed his career.

He said he began figuring things out and maturing.

In helping the Wolves win a championship, Lyon, 32, showcased a more tenacious style. In the past, he said he had sometimes been bogged down thinking about his technique and improving the speed of his game.

“I left Philly, and I just said, ‘You know what? I’m going to let my (competitiveness) take over. I’m here to win games,’” he said. “And it was a realization to me that if you can win games, then, really, you’re not going to be held down. And once I realized that and started thinking about (playing) goalie that way, I just started focusing on winning.

“I started focusing on being the most competitive person I could be, and things really, really started to go up from there.”

After earning a two-way contract from the Panthers, he won six games in March and April to help them grab the Eastern Conference’s last playoff spot and begin their run to three consecutive Stanley Cup finals. He also played three games during their first-round upset of the Boston Bruins.

He parlayed that torrid stretch into a two-year contract from the Detroit Red Wings. After playing 74 games over the last two seasons, he inked a two-year, $3 million deal with the Sabres.

The aggressive style the 6-foot-1, 196-pound Lyon implemented four years ago hasn’t left him.

“That’s the edge that I continue to try to maintain and to play with and be that super competitive person,” he said. “I still think about that a lot. But it’s always an uphill battle and the hamster wheel never stops spinning, really. So it’s always a day-to-day grind to try to find that motivation and that will to stop the puck and win games.”

Lyon, having won 35 games over the last two seasons, had options when free agency opened last Tuesday. So, what made him choose Buffalo?

He said James Reimer and Dustin Tokarski, two former Sabres goalies, swayed his decision.

Reimer, Lyon’s teammate with the Red Wings two years ago, spent most of last season with the Sabres. Tokarski, meanwhile, played for the Sabres in 2020-21 and returned to the organization in 2023-24.

“They both spoke very highly of it,” Lyon said. “And they said it’s a great spot to be for a goalie. I’m pretty close with both of those guys so I had a lot of trust in their opinion. They both really enjoyed their experience and their time there.”

Lyon, who grew up in Baudette, Minnesota, a city of less than 1,000 people, said he’s “a small-town guy.”

“I think that Buffalo is a good fit for me and how I like to operate,” he said.

Right now, Lyon might fit as the backup to goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The Sabres also have goalie prospect Devon Levi, who has started the last two seasons in Buffalo.

“I don’t know them on a personal level,” Lyon said. “I’m looking forward to that. But I can’t wait to be in the room with them and help them, and they’re going to help me, and we’re going to push each other.”

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