BUFFALO, N.Y. — When Seamus Kotyk thinks about Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s journey from 2017 second-round pick to the Buffalo Sabres’ starting goalie, he thinks about the wheelchair.
From January 1 to the end of last season, Luukkonen played like one of the best goalies in the NHL. He started the second-most games of any goalie in the league during that stretch and held a .919 save percentage and 2.31 goals against average. That helped him earn a five-year contract extension from the Sabres this summer with a $4.75 million annual cap hit.
Luukkonen’s path to the NHL seems like it was right on time. He emerged as Buffalo’s unquestioned starter a few months before he turned 25 after spending time in Finland, the OHL, ECHL and AHL. That’s a typical development timeline for a goalie in the NHL. But Kotyk saw up close what Luukkonen went through to get there, including a double hip surgery in 2019 that left him confined to a wheelchair and crutches while rehabbing in Buffalo that summer. He was 20 years old, thousands of miles from his home in Finland, grappling with an injury that could change the course of his career. Kotyk visited once a week to take him to dinner, but athletic trainer and physical therapist Mike Adesso and then team dietician Christine Dziedzic were there daily working with Luukkonen as he struggled through the rehab.
“That’s what I think about,” Kotyk said. “You think about everybody. What I learned from that was there were struggles and moments where he took deserving criticism for his performance. But inside you believe in the kid. It represents to anybody (that) if you believe in something, believe in it. Even if in the moment it might look differently, don’t waver. Be yourself and believe in your opinions and it will come out in the end. That’s what I take away from it. I never wavered. I always believed in him and more importantly, he always believed in himself. I always said he might bend but he will never break.”
That’s the challenge that is now facing Topias Leinonen, the Sabres’ second-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. Leinonen doesn’t just share draft status with Luukkonen. He’s a fellow Finn and shares the physical stature that made Luukkonen such an appealing prospect. Unfortunately for Leinonen, he’s also learning about the adversity that often comes on the path to the NHL. In two seasons since the Sabres drafted him, Leinonen has played a total of 59 games, but 40 of those came the season after he was drafted. Injuries and his situation playing in Finland’s top pro league limited him to 19 games last season. The lack of playing time has made his first two post-draft seasons tricky to evaluate. The numbers haven’t looked great, but he’s also been unable to find any sort of rhythm.
“It’s been a tough time,” Leinonen said at development camp in July. “I don’t know how I did it.”
Last season, in particular, was a struggle. He showed up to Sabres development camp with a stress fracture in his ankle. The Sabres weren’t sure how he got it, but he couldn’t practice. Then Leinonen got to training camp with JYP of the Finnish elite league in August where he was competing for a spot in the lineup.
“So he misses so much time over the summer and then gets to camp and the urgency to get in the lineup is there so he goes from zero to 100 and in three weeks the stress fracture came back,” Kotyk said.
That put Leinonen out of action for three months. When he returned to the ice in November, he was, understandably, not sharp.
“Everyone’s been playing for months and now you’re putting a 19-year-old kid in a pro league to play a game,” Kotyk said. “What do you expect the result to be?”
Leinonen then broke his finger in practice, which meant more missed time. As a result, his statistics haven’t been pretty. He played only six Liiga games last season and went 0-4-1 with a .844 save percentage and 4.14 goals against average. At the U-20 level, Leinonen played four regular season games with a .871 save percentage and 3.28 goals against average. But Kotyk wasn’t getting tied up in the statistics. Sometimes he wouldn’t even look at them. He knew with inconsistent playing time, Leinonen would have up-and-down results, especially with him being so inexperienced. What he wanted to see was one of the attributes that drew the Sabres to him in the first place. His size and mobility were appealing, but so was his competitiveness in the crease. That’s what Kotyk harped on in his regular conversations with Leinonen the last couple of seasons.
“When I watched him I was trying to keep him connected emotionally,” Kotyk said. “Regardless of the score, I don’t care what it is, compete, fight, work. That’s what I looked for. If I saw that and we can get him through the scenario of this season and not playing, then when he gets into a situation where he is playing, that fire and passion to not quit when it’s hard is there. Then you can worry about working and building him up.”
This summer, Leinonen was able to participate in Sabres development camp fully for the first time since he was drafted. Kotyk said he showed up to camp at a “significantly” lower weight than he had the past two years. He’s working with a personal trainer who doubles as his goalie coach, and it’s evident in his body composition and the way he’s moving on the ice.
Leinonen also changed teams. Rather than getting stuck in a murky playing time situation in Finland’s top league, he moved to Sweden to play for Mora IK in Sweden’s second division. In the preseason, he’s played two games, winning both and allowing just one goal total.
✍️ Vi spikar målvaktssidan med 20-åriga Topias Leinonen som ansluter från finska JYP! 🔥
Mer information och kommentarer hittar du på hemsidan.
Varmt välkommen till Mora IK Topias! #moraik pic.twitter.com/GcYTKbdcxl
— Mora IK (@Mora_IK) May 6, 2024
Those are small steps, but necessary ones for Leinonen. The last two seasons were a nightmare scenario in terms of his playing time. That’s why Kotyk is happy that Leinonen is playing for Mora IK. They have a quality goalie coach and their goalie last season, Waltteri Ignatjew, signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Flames at the end of the season. Mora IK is also in a small town where there isn’t much to do other than focus on hockey. Most importantly, though, Leinonen will get every chance to play for a team that wanted him.
“He’s kept his head above water and put in the work,” Kotyk said. “He’s a little bit behind where he should be from an experience standpoint but if you keep the optimism and extend the runway a little longer, I do think there’s a chance.”
That’s how things worked out for Luukkonen, who dealt with the hip injuries, a stint in the ECHL and an interrupted season due to COVID-19. Then what really mattered for Luukkonen was that he rose to the occasion when he got his opportunities, especially last season. As Kotyk put it, “He had choices to not put the work in, but he did.”
Leinonen has already reached a critical point in his development. The Sabres drafted Scott Ratzlaff in 2023, and he had a promising season in the WHL. They also drafted Ryerson Leenders late in the 2024 draft. They also have 22-year-old Devon Levi already knocking on the door in the NHL. Leinonen has to show he’s worthy of an entry-level deal by staying on the ice in Sweden and performing well.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, you have to perform at a certain point in time,” Kotyk said. “Leaving camp, everybody was saying he was trending in the right direction. It might be slower than he would have liked, but he’s trending in the right direction.”
(Photo of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen: Bill Wippert / NHLI via Getty Images)
