The Buffalo Sabres have been one of the hottest teams in the NHL as of recently. Just coming off a six-game winning streak, which is their longest since the infamous ten-game winning streak in 2018, the Sabres are slowly making their way up the NHL standings.
While it is unsurprising that the team has finally seemed to have broken through given their high-octane offense, which has arguably been the best in the league, this recent hot streak is surprisingly due to one big factor: goaltending.
For the better part of this season, the starting goaltending has been hit or miss. Craig Anderson has played well whenever he suits up, but Eric Comrie and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had been shaky. While a large chunk of this is due to other factors, such as team defense and injuries, the consensus was that the goaltending was going to need a big boost if there were any chance of a playoff push.
Luckily, that's exactly what's happened recently. The emergence of UPL as a starting goaltender has been huge, and it's why the team has seen success over the last stretch. He's stolen games for the Sabres against high-quality opponents such as Colorado, Vegas and Boston.
Since December 10th, he is 5-1-0 with a .922 sv%, a 2.80 GAA, and has 7.73 goals saved above expected (per Evolving Wild's model). That is legit goaltending over a decently large stretch.
However, one question definitely lingers over Kevyn Adams' head.
The Lingering Question
With this recent stretch of hot goaltending, the question has to be asked: what exactly is Kevyn Adams going to do when Eric Comrie is ready to be activated off IR?
Comrie made a successful return to action in Rochester on December 31st against the Marlies, making 34 saves in a game where Toronto was the better team. It was a very good start to hopefully a successful conditioning stint that allows Comrie to get back to 100%.
Comrie's conditioning stint can go a maximum of 14 days, which means he'll have to be brought back up to the main roster on January 14th. That buys a little bit of time for Adams, but not much.
It's not often in recent memory that the Sabres could say they've had a surplus of good goaltending in the organization, which is a good problem to have, but it doesn't make the decision-making any easier.
There are four possible outcomes that comes from deciding which goaltending situation to go with:
Let's go over each one.
The Sabres Carry All Three of UPL/Comrie/Anderson
This is likely the "easiest" route for Kevyn Adams to go. There's no risk involved for any of the goalies, likely no feelings hurt, and the only obstacle to tackle would-be load management. However, there are still a few points to raise about this scenario.
For one, it's going to be difficult for any one guy to get into a rhythm. When each of UPL and Comrie were up for their respective parts of the season, they each got the starter's load, about 60% of the games. In this scenario, however, neither is going to receive that. In my mind, the three goalies would probably do a 40/40/20 split. For every five games, Comrie and UPL get two, and Anderson gets one.
While Anderson certainly doesn't play all that much already, which is a good thing considering he could really use the rest time at his age, spreading out his appearances, even more, could hinder his play. He could be shaking off the rust for every game that he ends up playing.
Then there's the biggest hurdle of all: if the Sabres want to keep all three goalies, they are going to have to clear up a roster spot. Despite how fans may feel about Casey Fitzgerald, the Sabres are not going to just carry six defensemen on the roster, the spot is going to have to be freed up with a forward; that being Rasmus Asplund or Vinny Hinostroza.
Neither has played unbelievably well this season, but both are players that could for sure help other teams, so the risk of getting picked up off waivers exists. I personally won't lose sleep if Hinostroza were to be lost, but the organization clearly likes him, so it would still be hard to imagine they put him through waivers.
Comrie Stays Down in the AHL
This one is pretty straightforward. UPL has clearly earned his spot as the number one goalie in Buffalo, and if this play holds up over the next 14 days, then this scenario is entirely possible. It's going to be tough to justify bringing in Comrie to steal reps from UPL, so this might be the direction that the Sabres head in.
Kevyn Adams stated in one of his recent press conferences that Comrie said he is willing to do whatever the organization feels is best, and that may include this situation. The caveat with this scenario is that the Sabres have to risk Comrie getting picked up off of waivers if they want to keep him in the AHL.
Comrie is signed at a very cheap price for this season and next, and is still relatively young for a goalie at the age of 27. There are many NHL teams that could use a goalie who has always shown a good track record in the AHL and has shown flashes in the NHL, which is particularly why the Sabres took a chance on him this last summer.
That's not to say that Comrie is 100% guaranteed to get picked up, NHL teams have let guys weirdly slip through in recent times (Nedeljkovic during the Covid season comes to mind). However, if you're the Columbus Blue Jackets or the Vancouver Canucks, who's to say you don't take a chance on this guy with your woes?
At the end of the day, if the Sabres feel like they can't justify sending UPL down or carrying three goalies, then they might just have to cross their fingers and put Comrie through the waiver wire.
Anderson is Somehow Removed from the Picture
Craig Anderson is a 41-year-old goaltender, whether he likes it or not, that's the truth. He has been very steady this season, but as we all know, he needs some serious rest time between starts. It's the right thing to do, but his availability is no doubt sparse at times.
This hasn't been a problem, as both Comrie and UPL have shown they can step up to the larger role at times, but perhaps evening out the reps would be better for the team. It's completely hypothetical, but I do wonder if perhaps Anderson could retire from the team mid-season.
I want to specify, I am NOT advocating for this, just merely proposing a scenario. It had to have been in Kevyn Adams' head during the offseason that UPL could very well work his way into the Sabres' regular duo by the end of the season, so I wonder if there was perhaps a conversation between him and Anderson when negotiating a contract if that scenario were to occur. This is JUST speculation, but maybe they spoke about what would happen if UPL and Comrie could handle the crease themselves, maybe Anderson could finally step away from the game feeling that the Sabres are in a good position to carry on without him.
This is the only situation where I believe that Anderson would be removed from the Sabres' crease. Last season, the only place where Anderson would've felt comfortable being traded to at the deadline was Florida (since that's where his family resides and they were contending for a cup) and I doubt they circle back to that this year, considering where Florida is in the standings. Plus, I seriously doubt they would put him on waivers, Craig didn't come back for his 21st season to compete for a Calder Cup, he did it to help the Sabres grow.
Do I think something like this happens? No, he's having too good of a season so far where I think he'd want to retire, but as I said, I wouldn't completely rule it out.
UPL Gets Sent Down
If UPL had to go through waivers I probably wouldn't even be raising this scenario, teams would pick him up in a heartbeat. However, UPL does not have to cross through the waiver wire this season, which offers something to the Sabres that no other scenario presented gives them: flexibility.
This is the only situation where the Sabres don't risk losing a single player. UPL gets sent down without any worrying and the rosters are not particularly affected in any way. However, there are some obvious points to raise if this were to happen.
Most importantly, what kind of a message would this send to UPL? Let's look at UPL's track record for the Sabres these last two seasons: he was their best goalie last season (in limited time, but still), he was their best goalie in preseason this year (still got sent down), and now he's proven to be their best goalie this season. If he were to get sent down now, I have to ask the question: when else is he going to stick?
"Next year" someone might say, and while I'll agree with them (Anderson probably retires this season), I'll also say this: Devon Levi is more than likely going to sign with the team at the end of this season. He'll probably start in the AHL next year, but there's no doubt that he's creeping up on UPL to be the team's next starting goaltender, and it wouldn't surprise me if he's given more of an opportunity than UPL since he's Adams' guy, unlike UPL. Now, if UPL keeps playing like his right now he won't have to worry about that, but I just want to raise that point. This is the type of thing that leads to a trade request.
Second of all, what kind of a message would this send to the current team? As I said, UPL has been their best goalie this season and the team is in the middle of a playoff race. How would the rest of the team react if he gets sent down? Of course, they would still have faith in Comrie and Anderson, but separating the goalie that probably just stole them six points in the standings from the roster would probably raise a few question marks.
Conclusion
In my opinion, I don't think the team can justify sending down UPL in any scenario. I know it offers them flexibility that no other situation would, but he's just played too well as of late where I think they can rationally do it. That could change within the next two weeks, but it's not looking that way right now.
The scenario I lean toward most is finding a way to carry all three goalies, but I wouldn't rule out putting Comrie through waivers. The Anderson retiring scenario is definitely unlikely, but as I said, it wouldn't completely catch me off guard.
I'll say this, I don't envy Kevyn Adams, he has a very difficult decision to make here. There's not a scenario where everyone ends up happy, so we'll just have to see what direction he goes in.
Either way, let's hope whatever call he makes is the right one.
As always, Go Sabres.
Comments