Luukkonen Side-Swiped, Levi Recalled For Sabres Road Trip

The Buffalo Sabres made some roster moves in advance of their four-game Western road swing, recalling goalie Devon Levi from the Rochester Americans of the AHL and placing center Ryan McLeod on injured reserve.

Goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has been leaned on heavily by Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff, starting 33 of the club’s 45 games this season. The 25-year-old is 14-14-4, with a 3.02 GAA and .896 save % and was making his fifth straight start on Friday when he was side-swiped by Penguins center Evgeni Malkin in the second period of Buffalo’s 5-2 loss to Pittsburgh.

Luukkonen was checked out by the team’s medical staff on the ice and finished the game, but club decided to call up Levi as a precautionary measure with the Sabres playing on back-to-back nights on Monday in Seattle and Vancouver on Tuesday.

Levi has struggled with Buffalo this season (2-6-0, with a 3.97 GAA and .876 save %), but has put up excellent numbers with the Amerks (12-3-2, 2.33 GAA, .913 save %), earning an AHL All-Star nod. The 23-year-old will likely split duties with James Reimer or Luukkonen in the back-to-back games.

McLeod, who scored a hat trick in the 4-2 win over Carolina on Wednesday, played nearly 17 minutes in the Sabres 5-2 loss to the Penguins on Friday after suffering a lower-body injury in practice on Thursday.

Follow Michael on X, Instagram, and Bluesky @MikeInBuffalo

And right now, it's like the SS Lindy is heading right for the iceberg again. I don't know what's going on with this team. Well, I mean, the, the, the exasperation from Lindy after the game yesterday, I mean, because okay, they have the 13 game winless skid and you're not going to diminish that because that destroyed their season. But after that, they've gone five, two, and one in the last eight games and played markedly better. But the problem is, is they're not going anywhere. They don't, they were seven or eight points out of a playoff spot at that point. After five, two, and one, they were still seven or eight points. They're not making the playoffs. I'm sorry. I had, I'd love to have a playoff. And they may have a run where they get closer, but they're just too inconsistent. They just have too many gaps in their game.