BUFFALO – In those early years, as he grinded in the minors and his paid dues, Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said it could be difficult to see the big picture.
Luukkonen, having developed into one of hockey’s top prospects and been anointed the Sabres’ goalie of the future, kept hearing the same thing.
“You’re a young guy, everybody tells you this and that and that you’re going to be great,” Luukkonen said following Sunday’s practice in KeyBank Center. “Sometimes you need people to tell you that you’re not there yet.”
Luukkonen said he started getting ahead of himself.
So in the moment, for example, he had troubling seeing a more experienced goalie be recalled from the Rochester Americans ahead of him.
“You just think, ‘Why don’t you get your shot?’” said Luukkonen, who on Sunday is expected to start Game 1 of the Sabres’ first-round series against the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Or he said it might be hard to see the point of busing to Utica to play the Comets for the 12th time in the season.
Looking back, Luukkonen, 27, realizes everything he experienced as a raw youngster on the way up – he spent most of his first pro season in 2019-20 toiling in the ECHL with the Cincinnati Cyclones – served a purpose and molded him into the goalie he is today. He learned you can’t fast track development.
“I feel like there’s been moments where I kind of got more grounded, just kind of focused back at the situation at hand rather than just look too much forward,” he said.
Now Luukkonen understands the Sabres summoned that veteran netminder because he was better served staying in the AHL and honing his craft.
“You realize it’s not about getting one or two games; it’s about building something somewhere else,” he said. “It’s about … building confidence at a certain level, learning to play at a certain level first, getting the reps in rather than just being around here and maybe not being ready to play here.”
Right now, Luukkonen, who battled injuries for about half the season, ranks among the NHL’s hottest goalies as his first postseason start approaches.
Since the Olympic break ended Feb. 25 – a lower-body injury cost his spot with Team Finland for the Milano Cortina Games – he has compiled an 11-2-1 record with a 2.21 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage in 14 games.
After alternating starts with goalie Alex Lyon over an 18-game stretch, Lyon struggled in a few outings before suffering a muscle strain late in the regular season, allowing Luukkonen to seize the No. 1 job.
While it has taken time, Luukkonen, who regressed last season after a breakout campaign in 2023-24, has morphed into the Sabres’ backbone again.
Sometimes, Seamus Kotyk said, he will turn on his TV, spot Luukkonen and say to himself, “I know that kid.”
Kotyk, the Sabres’ goaltending development coach, is one of only a few people left in the organization who was around when the Sabres drafted Luukkonen in the second round in 2017, 54th overall.
Shortly after the Sabres selected Luukkonen, Kotyk met him in a suite in the United Center.
“He was like, ‘What’s the plan?’” Kotyk told the Times Herald of the first impression Luukkonen made that day in Chicago. “So right then and there you perk up.”
In those early days, Kotyk learned Luukkonen possessed more maturity than other prospects in their late teens or early 20s.
As injuries wreaked havoc on his development – he had hip surgery in 2019 and missed all of the Calder Cup Playoffs in 2022 – Kotyk watched the Luukkonen plow forward.
“He had setbacks along the way with injuries and maybe not being on a team he wanted to be on, but it never deterred him,” he said. “He always went in the same direction.”
Kotyk said Luukkonen’s arduous path to the big leagues and the dues he paid “made him resilient.”
He could either embrace the challenge or pout.
“I know inside he didn’t want to go to the ECHL,” Kotyk said. “But he didn’t show he didn’t want to be there. He didn’t push back. … He worked just as hard in Cincinnati as he would’ve in Rochester. So he did all the right things.”
Luukkonen said wasn’t “even ready to play in the AHL at that point.”
“It was a good thing for me,” he said of his 23-game career in the ECHL.
Luukkonen’s grateful for the support Kotyk, Sabres assistant coaches Mike Bales and Seth Appert, who previously coached the Amerks, and others in the organization have given him.
Staying in Rochester and taking that 135-mile ride to Utica was worth it.
“In the end, it all pays off,” he said. “If you’re ready to go through it, if you’re ready to grind through it, it will pay off at some point.”