What exactly will goalie Alex Lyon’s role be with the Buffalo Sabres?
Right now, Lyon, their most significant signing on Tuesday, the first day of free agency, is likely penciled in as Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s backup.
But what if Luukkonen, 26, struggles like he did last season? Late in the year, veteran James Reimer took over, keeping the Finn on the bench as he enjoyed a career-best stretch.
The Sabres are under enormous pressure to win and end their NHL-record 14-year playoff drought, so if Luukkonen looks wonky, perhaps they will turn to Lyon, who signed a two-year, $3.6 million contract.
Lyon’s arrival might keep goalie prospect Devon Levi with the Rochester Americans for another year of development.
Then again, general manager Kevyn Adams has expressed confidence in Levi, saying the youngster will determine when he graduates to the Sabres.
So if Levi, 23, impresses the Sabres in training camp and earns a roster spot, would they keep three goalies like they did a few years ago? After Levi cracked the Sabres’ opening night roster last year, they lost Reimer on waivers before reclaiming him.
While Adams, who’s scheduled to talk to the media Wednesday morning, has said he would feel comfortable with Luukkonen and Levi as his goalies in the upcoming season, he knew he needed to find a veteran and add depth and competition to the crease.
Luukkonen regressed last season following a breakout campaign. Levi has played just 39 games in the big leagues.
Lyon, 32, compiled a 14-9-1 record with a 2.81 goals-against average, an .896 save percentage and one shutout in 30 games with the Detroit Red Wings last season.
The 6-foot-1, 196-pound Lyon played a career-high 44 games for Detroit in 2023-24. He has also played for the Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers.
With Florida in 2022-23, he won six straight regular-season games in late March and early April after spending most of the year in the minors, helping the Panthers sneak into the playoffs. He also played three games in their first-round series and made one appearance in the Stanley Cup final.
The Yale product has registered a 58-38-11 record with 2.98 goals-against average, a .902 save percentage and four shutouts in 113 career NHL games.
The Sabres, who added three NHL players last week in two trades, made some other moves Tuesday, dealing forward Sam Lafferty to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a sixth-round pick in 2026 and signing winger Justin Danforth, according to TSN.
They also re-signed three restricted free agents: center Ryan McLeod, defenseman Ryan Johnson and forward Tyson Kozak.
Lafferty, 30, struggled last season after signing a two-year, $4 million contract as a free agent, registering four goals, seven points and a minus-15 rating in 60 games.
The Sabres inked the speedy Lafferty, who had just enjoyed a career year with the Vancouver Canucks, when they overhauled their fourth line.
But he struggled from the get-go, becoming a healthy scratch in October. Meanwhile, fourth-line winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel, who signed the same day, was waived and eventually traded.
The only fourth-liner the Sabres acquired last offseason still on the roster is winger Beck Malenstyn.
Lafferty spent parts of two seasons with Chicago earlier in his career, playing 97 games in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
Danforth, who might replace Lafferty on the fourth line, signed a two-year, $3.6 million contract, according to TSN’s Bob McKenzie.
He scored nine goals and 21 points in 61 games for the Columbus Blues Jackets.
Danforth, 32, has spent most of the last four seasons with Columbus, recording 31 goals and 64 points in 183 games.
He spent 2017-18 in the Buffalo organization, scoring 28 goals and 59 points for the Cincinnati Cyclones, the Sabres’ ECHL affiliate at the time. He also scored three goals and five points in 15 games for Rochester.
The 5-foot-8, 188-pound Danforth went overseas in 2018, starring for teams in Finland and Russia before returning to North America in 2021 and earning an NHL job.
Meanwhile, the Sabres also re-signed Jack Rathbone, Johnson’s defense partner with Rochester, to a two-year, two-way contract.
“I did a little fist pump when I found out,” Amerks coach Mike Leone said of Rathbone’s new contract.
The deal is worth $800,000 in the NHL and $525,000 in the minors each season, according to Puckpedia.com, with $550,000 guaranteed.
Rathbone, 26, could’ve become an unrestricted free agent Tuesday.
He compiled six goals and 23 points in 67 games with the Amerks last season.
Leone said Rathbone “really made a transformation” last season. When he turned pro, he was known as a skill defender.
But he has focused on developing the defensive side of his game.
“If you look at the underlying numbers this year, him and RJ really played like a shutdown pair,” Leone said. “You look at our goals against this year, they were a huge part of it, having tough matchups.”
Rathbone recorded two goals and five points in 28 games with the Vancouver Canucks earlier in his career.
The Sabres also signed defenseman Mason Geertsen to a two-year, two-way contract worth $775,000 in the NHL and $425,000 in the minors, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Geertsen, 30, spent last season with the Henderson Silver Knights, the Vegas Golden Knights’ AHL affiliate, compiling five assists and 77 penalty minutes in 31 games.
The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Geertsen, a frequent fighter, will likely begin the season in Rochester.
In November, he announced he was in remission after battling B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
He registered zero points and 77 penalty minutes in 25 games for the New Jersey Devils in 2021-22.
In other news, defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker, who the Sabres did not extend a qualifying offer to Monday, has signed a one-year, $875,000 contract with Detroit.
Bernard-Docker, 25, played 15 games with the Sabres last season after arriving from the Ottawa Senators before the trade deadline.