By Rachel Lenzi

Copyright buffalonews

The Buffalo Sabres open training camp Thursday, and they could have a better grasp within the next few days on the nature and severity of the injury that has sidelined Ukko-Pekko Luukkonen and forced the Sabres to sign a goalie late in the offseason.

Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams didn’t elaborate on the nature of the injury that Luukkonen, the Sabres’ No. 1 goalie, sustained, other than saying Wednesday morning at LECOM Harborcenter that it was “lower body” and that the injury impacted Luukkonen when he was on the ice.

“The imaging is clean, which is the good news,” Adams said. “Just trying to do some rehab and figure out exactly how to get him over the hump. He’s kind of in that day-to-day mode. We’ll probably know more over the next few days, exactly where he’s at, but it’s encouraging, over the last three to four days.”

The injury was enough for the Sabres to sign goalie Alexandar Georgiev last week. Georgiev split 2024-25 between the Colorado Avalanche and the San Jose Sharks and enters his ninth NHL season.

“It’s really important to have internal competition, no matter what, and to protect ourselves,” Adams said.

Georgiev is a proven NHL goalie. He led the NHL in wins in 2022-23 (40) and 2023-24 (38) with Colorado but he was 8-7 with a .874 save percentage and a 3.38 goals-against average in 18 games with the Avalanche, and was 7-19-4 with a .875 save percentage and a 3.88 GAA in 31 games with the Sharks.

“This is, for me, an area where you have a goaltender that’s played 300 games in this league, he’s played playoff hockey, he’s at a great age, he’s been around the league for a while,” Adams said.

Georgiev and Luukkonen are two of eight goalies in training camp, joining Alex Lyon, Devon Levi, Ryerson Leenders, Scott Ratzlaff, Topias Leinonen and Samuel Meloche.

“There’s no pecking order,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “UPL, obviously, is the guy we’re looking at to be our goaltender, but in this situation, we needed another guy.”

Ruff said he’s optimistic that Luukkonen’s injury could be short term.

“We still have to protect ourselves,” Ruff said. “I had (Georgiev) when he was young in New York. He’s proven he’s a good, quality goaltender in this league. He’s got something to prove.”

More injuries for Sabres

There will be at least one more player, if not two, on the shelf when the Sabres open training camp.

Jordan Greenway will be out for the start of camp after the left wing had a setback in rehabilitation and had a second surgery in July for a middle-body injury. He had the first surgery in mid-December and played in 34 games last season.

Adams targeted opening night (Oct. 9) for Greenway’s return, but only for clearance to return to the ice.

“He’s going to miss a little bit of time,” Adams said.

Adams said right wing Alex Tuch is “day to day” and did not disclose the injury.

“He may not be out there (Thursday) or the next day or two, but it’s nothing significant, just a little bit of a little minor thing,” Adams said.

Tuch’s contract talks

Tuch is in the final year of his seven-year, $33.25 million contract and Adams gave an update on the state and movement of negotiations.

Tuch would become a free agent July 1, if he does not re-sign with the Sabres. The Sabres, Adams said, have been clear with Tuch on how important he is to the organization. Tuch is from Central New York, and tied a career high with 36 goals last season.

“The good news is that he’s said the exact same thing about being here,” Adams said. “He wants to be here. He’s made it clear to me and to us, and we’ve had good, productive conversations with the Bartletts, that’s his agency.

“And these things take time. We’re going to work through it.”

Coaching continuity

Ruff wanted continuity as he entered the second year of his second stint with the Sabres. He evaluated his coaching staff and retained all four assistants: Seth Appert, Marty Wilford, Mike Bales and Matt Ellis.

Ruff said he explored the opportunity to “try to improve the staff” but set an expectation.

“We all have to be better,” Ruff said. “Seth knows this group better. I know this group better. Marty is the one guy that’s been involved with the defense. And there’s a lot of areas that we can still continue to improve, but the thought of the continuity, going from last year to this year, with new coaches coming in last year, at the end of the day, I decided to keep it the way it was.

“I believe in this group. I do. We know there’s areas where we need to improve, and we’re going to improve.”

Ruff kept returning to one specific area for improvement: Defense. The Sabres and Pittsburgh finished 29th in goals against (287) last season.

The Sabres made one significant change: They hired Brian Galivan from USA Hockey as their director of performance in May to replace Ed Gannon, who had been the team’s strength and conditioning coach since 2015.

Strength and conditioning was an issue, particularly after Ruff openly questioned his team’s individual and collective stamina after a 6-4 loss Jan. 20 at Seattle.

Mair’s status following arrest

Adam Mair, the director of player development, remains on administrative leave after his arrest Sept. 4 in Pittsford. Mair was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated under Leandra’s Law, because there were three children in his vehicle when his BWM allegedly rear-ended another vehicle.

Mair is due to appear in Pittsford Town Court on Oct. 2. He faces three felony DWI counts and three misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Adams said the Sabres have not named anyone to fill in for Mair while he is on administrative leave.

“We do have a plan, internally, in terms of making sure we have coverage, in terms of our prospects,” Adams said. “As we move forward here, we’ll get that even further along in some of the meetings over the next week.”

Mrtka’s immediate future

Adams and Ruff both praised defenseman Radim Mrtka’s showing in development camp in July and at the Prospects Challenge earlier this month. Mrtka, the Sabres’ first-round pick in the NHL draft in June, is on the training camp roster, but Ruff didn’t commit to a long-term plan for Mrtka.

“If he’s going to play, he’ll play a couple (preseason) games, but the focus will be the group we have, making sure that that group is ready to go,” Ruff said.

Adams said Mrtka is eligible to play with Rochester of the American Hockey League this season.

“That’s something we’ll discuss,” Adams said. “I do like the situation he has in juniors, with Seattle (of the Western Hockey League), so we’ll have those discussions, but I’d like to see him maybe get in a game, as well, in the preseason, early, and evaluate where he’s at. But he’s going to be a good one for us.”

Sabres captains

Ruff confirmed the captains for 2025-26 won’t change: Rasmus Dahlin will be captain with Tuch, Mattias Samuelsson and Tage Thompson as assistant captains.