Camp Preview: Ullmark, Hutton to lead the way in net once again

Consistency in the crease is something every team strives for and the Buffalo Sabres will once again be counting on Linus Ullmark and Carter Hutton to provide it.
The goaltending tandem will return for their third season together when the Buffalo Sabres take the ice for the first time tomorrow during training camp presented by BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York.
Goaltending will also likely be a storyline throughout the NHL as teams will be required to either carry three goalies on their active roster or two on the active roster and at least one on their practice squad.
Buffalo will have five goaltenders - Ullmark, Hutton, Jonas Johansson, Dustin Tokarski and Michael Houser - at camp.

New faces

Buffalo signed Tokarski to a two-year contract this offseason. A two-time Calder Cup champion, the 31-year-old goaltender spent the 2019-20 season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the AHL.
He made his NHL debut in 2010 with the Tampa Bay Lightning and has started 27 games over the course of his career.

Returning in royal

Ullmark signed a one-year contract in late October to avoid arbitration. After finishing 2019-20 with a 17-14-3 record (the highest win total of his career), he's looking to build on the work he's put in.
"It doesn't matter if I'm on a one, two, three, or a long-time deal," he said after signing. "It doesn't take away the things that I need to do every day to better prove myself as being a starting goaltender in this league."
The 27-year-old goalie was tied for sixth in the NHL last season among goalies who played at least 30 games in even-strength save percentage (.926). Last year was his second full NHL season.
"I think Linus has really taken strides over the last couple of seasons," general manager Kevyn Adams said in October. "You know, when I first started in this role, one of the most important first conversations I had with the coaching staff was, where are we in net? … I think everybody feels really good about the steps that Linus took last year, and we're excited about him."

Hutton told The Buffalo News in October that he dealt with a vision issue for much of the 2019-20 season. After a slow start, he consulted with the coaching staff and medial experts, and was diagnosed with convergence insufficiency, a disorder in which a person's eyes don't move at the same time, according to The News.
"It was strange. I was struggling during the season tracking pucks," he told The News. "Simple drills during practice. It was frustrating in the sense that it didn't affect my day-to-day life totally, but I'm doing things at high speeds and trying to be sharp."
Hutton, never one to make excuses, did not make the issue public during the season and tried to work through it. He received therapy daily throughout the year and in his final 10 starts, he posted a .908 save percentage, raising his season average to .898.
Hutton, 35, is 93-78-26 in 219 career games.

Making the push

If you're looking for a model of effective organizational development, Jonas Johansson might make for a great case study. Drafted in the third round of the 2014 NHL Draft, the 6-foot-5, 214-pound netminder left Sweden after the 2015-16 season to join the Rochester Americans. He split time between the AHL and Buffalo's ECHL affiliate in Cincinnati.
During the 2018-19 season, he played 10 games with the Rochester Americans, posting career-best AHL numbers in save percentage (.926) and goals-against average (2.26), while logging a 4-1-0 record. He also went 18-5-3 in his second season with the Cincinnati Cyclones (ECHL).
He built on those numbers last season and was named an AHL All-Star, posting a 14-4-3 record with the Amerks with a .921 save percentage and a 2.28 goals-against average in 22 games.
The patience finally paid off when Johansson made his NHL debut last season, going 1-3-1 in six appearances with Buffalo.

Johansson, 25, made his NHL debut for the Sabres last season, going 1-3-1 in six appearances. He went 14-4-3 with a .921 save percentage in 22 games with the Rochester Americans, earning a spot in the AHL All-Star Classic for the first time in his career.
"There were times, for sure, when I was in Cincinnati when you're really wondering if it's ever going to happen," Johansson said before making his first NHL start. "But like I said, you've just got to keep on going. Keep good habits and work hard and hopefully they're going to pay off one day."
He earned his first win on February 23 in a 25-save performance against the Jets.
"What we liked about him, I'll tell you the truth, there was no difference between him a half an hour before the game today than a half an hour before the game yesterday or the games he didn't play. He's just a very well-centered individual as a person," Krueger said after that victory.
"He knows what he's good at and he works hard in practice. He's been extremely receptive to the coaching in Rochester and now here with [assistant coach] Mike Bales and this is not lucky what's happening here."
Michael Houser, who is on an AHL deal, will be back at Sabres camp as well. He played in 26 games for Cincinnati last year, going 16-5-5 with a .902 save percentage and a 2.27 goals-against average.

The week(end) ahead

Buffalo will practice for the first time tomorrow. We'll have full coverage for you starting at 11 a.m. here on Sabres.com and our official social media channels.
Buffalo will skate through the weekend with sessions scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, leading up to an intra-squad scrimmage on Monday at 1 p.m.