Alex Lyon, your #1 goalie?

[Mango]

8 hours ago, Weave said:

Its still early.  Real early.

We're also hanging him out to dry. It's barely sustainable for great goaltenders.

[msw2112]

1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I saw Lyon make several unbelievable saves, including one against Boston.

I did not see the Boston game, but I don't doubt what you are saying.  I thought he played very well last night and was always in the right position and stopped a lot of shots through traffic, which was impressive.  I didn't see any saves that were going to make the highlight reel, but I suppose that by being in the right position, he didn't have to.  My main point was that while nobody would be unhappy with "spectacular" goaltending, the Sabres can get by with "solid" goaltending if their offense performs to its capability.  Prior to last night, the offense hadn't.  But if you took last season's offense and added the kind of goaltending provided by Lyon the last few games, they would have made the playoffs.

I like UPL and always want to see guys the Sabres have drafted and developed (and paid) succeed, but UPL was really bad for most of last season.  If UPL plays like he did from January - April 2024, the team would be in great shape.  In my opinion, UPL's play during that stretch was even better than what Lyon had done so far this season.  Everyone thought that UPL had arrived, and the team paid him accordingly, only to see him stumble last season and now start this season on the injured list.  Let's hope he returns to that form, and Lyon continues his strong play, in which case the Sabres will have a great goalie tandem.

[Huckleberry]

 

[PerreaultForever]

Lyon has been good, but he's never played this much before in his career. They will burn him out or get him injured this way. 

[DarthEbriate]

10 hours ago, Taro T said:

Ellis right now is a victim of the schedule, much like the backups were in October of last year.  No back to back nights and the starter is playing well and is still fresh as the season has just begun.  Had they not been 0-3, Eliis MIGHT've gotten the start last night.  But the team was desperate, Lyon is looking ilke the Lyon that came in when Bobrovsky was unavailable, and he's not being asked to play on btb nights, and with it being the very beginning of the season, he's well rested.

Would run Lyon for the most part through October unless the horseshoe falls out of his pants before then.  Am in no rush to activate UPL, at best he gives us the goaltending Lyon is providing, and activating him forces a roster move to either 3 headed monster or Ellis back to the Blues organization.

Will take November as it comes.  Expecting even when UPL is back for Lyon to get 2 of every 3 or 3 of every 5 starts.  It would be foolish to go away from him while he's hot.  But won't expect him to stay hot into December.  Would love to see it; but don't believe he's ever stayed hot for more than 2 months.  

Try to get Ellis a game before activating UPL, but don't believe they have a btb for at least another week and a half, so that may not be doable.  It would be good to be able to keep him long enough to force St. Louis to keep him on their roster should they make a claim on him.

But there was only one backup to worry about last year.

As always, it goes back to Adams and the man who hired him and continues to love and employ him despite all evidence showing he still hasn't learned enough to be effective or efficient at his job. I'm sure he's economical.

They had a goalie with 500 games played experience ready to provide average backup (tandem) goaltending. And that guy whose career numbers are equal to UPL's best season in which he was excellent for half a season? They waived him immediately upon returning to the States after the Prague games.

Adams had an offseason plan to pair the new starter with a veteran. And then he abandoned the plan immediately. It was shown that Luukkonen wasn't at the same level he had been the end of the previous season and Levi wasn't ready. And their defense still included Cozens, Quinn, Power, Muel... etc. and a new system under Ruff. And they went with two inexperienced goalies instead of Reimer.

It was the people in charge of personnel who don't understand teambuilding and roster construction... again.

If Reimer had been retained and provided his usual .900 goaltending, instead of Levi's numbers in Oct/Nov, and if Ruff had allowed Reimer to split the games instead of just riding UPL forever once Reimer had been re-claimed off of waivers...  they probably are 4-5 wins better. And if one of those wins is against Montreal (0-3-1), maybe it's the Sabres sneaking into the playoffs.

-----

Fast forward. This season, they might finally get it. Once again, it's a veteran goalie with career numbers better than UPL's career (though not as good as Reimer's). But there's no reason for Lyon not to be a tandem goalie with UPL.

Let Lyon play. Send UPL to Rochester for a conditioning assignment. Play Ellis once every 4 games so you see what he can do and you don't burn out Lyon. Get the goaltending right. For once. (then fire Sheevyn anyway.) Ellis should play Monday in MTL and at TOR next weekend, and he should already know when he's going to be in net.

[PromoTheRobot]

12 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

But there was only one backup to worry about last year.

As always, it goes back to Adams and the man who hired him and continues to love and employ him despite all evidence showing he still hasn't learned enough to be effective or efficient at his job. I'm sure he's economical.

They had a goalie with 500 games played experience ready to provide average backup (tandem) goaltending. And that guy whose career numbers are equal to UPL's best season in which he was excellent for half a season? They waived him immediately upon returning to the States after the Prague games.

Adams had an offseason plan to pair the new starter with a veteran. And then he abandoned the plan immediately. It was shown that Luukkonen wasn't at the same level he had been the end of the previous season and Levi wasn't ready. And their defense still included Cozens, Quinn, Power, Muel... etc. and a new system under Ruff. And they went with two inexperienced goalies instead of Reimer.

It was the people in charge of personnel who don't understand teambuilding and roster construction... again.

If Reimer had been retained and provided his usual .900 goaltending, instead of Levi's numbers in Oct/Nov, and if Ruff had allowed Reimer to split the games instead of just riding UPL forever once Reimer had been re-claimed off of waivers...  they probably are 4-5 wins better. And if one of those wins is against Montreal (0-3-1), maybe it's the Sabres sneaking into the playoffs.

-----

Fast forward. This season, they might finally get it. Once again, it's a veteran goalie with career numbers better than UPL's career (though not as good as Reimer's). But there's no reason for Lyon not to be a tandem goalie with UPL.

Let Lyon play. Send UPL to Rochester for a conditioning assignment. Play Ellis once every 4 games so you see what he can do and you don't burn out Lyon. Get the goaltending right. For once. (then fire Sheevyn anyway.) Ellis should play Monday in MTL and at TOR next weekend, and he should already know when he's going to be in net.

Selective memory re: Reimer last year. Lindsey did play him and he lost more then he won before he got hot towards the end of the season. So it wasn't as obvious as you make it out to be. Also remember that folks here thought Lyon was going to be a dud when Adams signed him because stats. 🙄 

Reimer is 5 years older than Lyon and is still a free agent.

[xzy89c1]

18 hours ago, Weave said:

So you think he is not actually hurt?

he is hurt far too much to be always hurt enough not to play. 

[Taro T]

2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Selective memory re: Reimer last year. Lindsey did play him and he lost more then he won before he got hot towards the end of the season. So it wasn't as obvious as you make it out to be. Also remember that folks here thought Lyon was going to be a dud when Adams signed him because stats. 🙄 

Reimer is 5 years older than Lyon and is still a free agent.

Lyon was a 50-50 shot.  They'd either get the Swamp Cats version or the Wings.

For once the coin landed heads.  (At least for now.)

Seems all you have to do to get this version of him is keep the guy he's backing up out of the lineup for a month or 2.  😉

Edited 6 hours ago by Taro T
Stupid autocucumber.

[K-9]

Regardless of who’s between the pipes, the D men have to be better in front of him and the forwards have to be better in front of the D men. That said, a goalie has to make saves more often than not when the players in front break down and suck.

[DarthEbriate]

2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Selective memory re: Reimer last year. Lindsey did play him and he lost more then he won before he got hot towards the end of the season. So it wasn't as obvious as you make it out to be. Also remember that folks here thought Lyon was going to be a dud when Adams signed him because stats. 🙄 

Reimer is 5 years older than Lyon and is still a free agent.

It is not selective memory.

Reimer's game log last season: https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/r/reimeja01/gamelog/2025 

Upon return from Anaheim, in his games he gave up 2(W), 2(L), 5(SOL) his only poor game and the Sabres could've won it even without Dahlin and were outshot 12-4 in the 3rd in full Alamo Death Star Mode, 0 (in relief of UPL, L), 0 (in relief of UPL, L), 2(L), 3(L), 3(L), 2 (in relief of UPL, L). His one bad game still got them to a shootout (and a blown lead

He never got shelled or chased, which happened to a very inconsistent UPL seven times (5 or more GA) in the same timeframe.

And then they hit March and he took over and the Sabres scored more goals and Reimer got the wins. But Ruff started Reimer only 7 times between 11/23/24 and 3/1/25. And Adams had waived him for October and almost the entirety of November where he would have played instead of Levi. Keep and play the veteran and quite possibly it's a different season (still a very flawed team, but with more wins).

[The Jokeman]

23 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Lyon's home town is Baudette, MN. Just down the road from the famous Warroad, MN. They are right on the Canadian border, close to the Northeast Angle, and closer to Winnipeg than Duluth. WNY winter temps and winds won't faze him but lake effect snows might.

But there's always a team that thinks a change of scenery will solve it all.

How about a forward?

Is Trent Frederic not a forward? 

[bob_sauve28]

On 10/16/2025 at 10:15 AM, matter2003 said:

No UPL will be improved because he feels he has "something to prove" again.  It's an ongoing trend with him.  When he feels like he has to prove something to earn playing time, he focuses in, plays very well and earns the playing time.  Then once he gets it and feels no real pressure, he seems to lose focus, not pay attention to day to day details and his play falls off a cliff. We have seen this happen in both directions twice now in his career...first when he needed to make the team from Rochester, then fell off once he was comfortable in his role.  Then again when he was in the final year of his contract and had a chance for a big payday. Then once he got it and earned the full time role, fell off a cliff and then thru the ground about 100 feet more. Now he has something to prove again and will probably play very well when he gets a chance...but I would be wary next year if he does play well and we give him the role again...we should expect the same lack of focus, lack of attention to details and severe drop off in play as a result.

Good! I hope that is the case and we end up with two quality goaltenders with younger ones in the wings. UPL’s trade value will skyrocket if he plays like a legit starter 

[RochesterExpat]

I get the intent of this thread and Alex Lyon is the clear #1 goalie right now, but (as others have pointed out) it's still early and the Sabres are asking a lot from him. My attitude is to ride the hot hand which is clearly Lyon at the moment. At the same time, Buffalo needs to be ready to pivot if/when the hand goes cold; unfortunately, the pivot plan right now is concerning.

Reality is that Alex Lyon is 33 in two months, went undrafted, and has seen glimpses of the NHL over 9 seasons but regressed in stats since 2022-2023 for a total of 117 games. The most games he every played in a season was two years ago at 44--a season he stole the starting net from Vile Husso (helped by Vile Husso getting injured/COVID and Detroit limiting James Reimer's minutes). The likelihood that Alex Lyon can actually run a 50-60 game load is very low. Especially with Buffalo's play through the first four games. It's so low, it would make him a statistical unicorn.

So what happens when Lyon falters? Are you going to pivot to UPL who has played 20 minutes of pre-season hockey, or to the NHL-untested waiver claim in Ellis?

I suspect what will happen is:

1. Lyon plays the majority of games (assuming he continues to perform). Ellis will get the Wings @ Sabres on 10/22 so he has some playing time before the first back-to-back (10/24 & 10/25) against the Leafs. Ellis will get the Sabres @ Leafs on 10/25.
2. If (maybe when?) UPL returns from injury, he will be sent to Rochester for a conditioning stint and he will be kept for the full 14 days (again, assuming Lyon continues to perform and Ellis proves serviceable). This is going to be his "pre-season."
3. The next back-to-back is not until 11/12 (Mammoth) and 11/13 (Avs). Realistically, UPL is back by then since he is already practicing.

That gives Ellis two games if Lyon continues to play well. The schedule is relatively favorable to a single goalie for October/November. Ellis might get one of Capitals @ Sabres (11/1) or Blues @ Sabres (11/6). If he gets one or both (the latter requires UPL's conditioning stint to start after 10/23 which seems unlikely since he is practicing), then we might have an idea of what approach Buffalo is taking.

Basically, I'm guessing if Ellis gets more than two games between now and the end of UPL's conditioning stint, it's because Buffalo is trying to keep him. Now we have a three-headed monster. As much as people want to move on from UPL, they aren't going to do it unless Ellis plays lights out and UPL performs poorly in the AHL. And, if that's the case, we're then banking on Lyon to be the starter and maintain a pace of play I don't believe is realistic. It's a mess and this is 100% on the GM. The most likely outcome is that Lyon is the starter until he falters and UPL takes over. Ellis is waived.

[bob_sauve28]

Can Ellis get sent to Rochester without clearing waivers? 

[Weave]

30 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

Can Ellis get sent to Rochester without clearing waivers? 

We picked him up off waivers, so he is waiver eligible.

[bob_sauve28]

35 minutes ago, Weave said:

We picked him up off waivers, so he is waiver eligible.

So we either keep three goalies or waive Ellis when UPL comes back?? 
 

Or trade one of them

[inkman]

I doubt it lasts but it sure would be nice if this team finally lucked into some good goaltending. 

[thewookie1]

18 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Lyon has been good, but he's never played this much before in his career. They will burn him out or get him injured this way. 

Actually he has for stints

His famous run in 2023 he played 6 games in 2 weeks in April as well as 6 over 9 days earlier that season.

[PromoTheRobot]

4 hours ago, The Jokeman said:

Is Trent Frederic not a forward? 

Whoops, he is. 😆