Hamilton Take 2: Luukkonen stays with Buffalo on new contract

BUFFALO, NEW YORK — I have to admit I was more than a little surprised that the Buffalo Sabres and their No. 1 goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen agreed to a five-year contract. I know Luukkonen enjoys playing in Buffalo and enjoys being with his teammates, which was illustrated when he was on vacation with a group of them earlier this month in Switzerland.

His $4.75 million salary cap hit is about what I expected, but I thought Luukkonen might want a shorter-term deal to maybe improve further and make more money. This contract ties him up until he’s 30.

So where does 22-year-old Devon Levi go? This kid went to Rochester last season and when he found the net, they were about to be eliminated from the playoffs. All he did was seize the opportunity to play and he helped the team finish in a tie for first place before his career ended. Levi will get a new contract after next season, but where will he play this season? He went to Rochester last season and worked hard to improve his game. When he came back and played a few games, he looked like a different goalie.

He stopped 31 of 33 shots in a 3-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. He played 50:14 stopping 31 of 32 shots in replacement of Luukkonen against the Ottawa Senators and made 28 saves on 30 shots in a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. In those three games, Levi posted a sparkling .947 save percentage and a 1.78 goals-against average. It was pretty obvious how much he had improved.

Buffalo signed 36-year-old goaltender James Reimer, who hasn’t played in the minor leagues since 2010-11 with the Toronto Marlies. So what does Adams think? Will he send Levi back to Rochester and keep Reimer to back up Luukkonen? How would Levi react to that?

There is a faction of fans and media who feel that Adams should spend every dollar up to the NHL’s $88 million cap, but in my opinion, who cares how much they spend? To me, what matters is who they spend it on.

Lindsey Moppert and I have already talked on our video podcast about the work Adams has done to improve the team by making it much harder to play against. The problem, in my opinion, is that the work is not done yet. It is almost August and the Buffalo Bills are on the field and it has not happened yet. Teams are repeatedly asking to move a top-6 player and other teams are not taking the bait. Adams has now spoken about how he thinks the guys that are here can and will score goals.

In talking to fans, some have told me they don’t believe Adams ever wanted to make this kind of trade and that he was lying about it. I don’t believe that at all. I firmly believe Adams made numerous attempts to trade this year’s first-round pick. The Carolina Hurricanes reportedly passed on the Columbus Blue Jackets’ fourth overall pick for Martin Necas, so it became clear Buffalo wasn’t getting him for the 11th or 14th overall pick.

There’s still time to make that kind of trade happen if Carolina and the Winnipeg Jets start getting reasonable about what they want, and I still believe that while it’s extremely difficult, it’s Adams’ job to find a way to make it happen.

The Sabres are closer to the salary cap than many thought. Buffalo still has Peyton Krebs to sign and I think he would be a little under $1 million. After that signing and the 23 players I think will make the team, I value them at around $7.6 million.

I remind everyone, as I always do, that next year Buffalo has to sign Levi, Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka and Bo Byram. They have to leave money to do that.

Let the offseason continue!