Fantasy Hockey Feature: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen's breakout

It was a proper breakout fantasy season for Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. His 0.910 save percentage, 2.57 goals against average, and 27 wins in 51 starts placed him as the 12th overall goalie in standard Yahoo! leagues, the 11th goalie in ESPN points formats, and the 11th overall goalie in standard Fantrax leagues. 

That is pretty good work for a netminder from a non-playoff team. So let’s look at how he did it, the problem with fantasy goaltenders in general, and what to expect moving forward. 

Luukkonen wasn’t the starter to begin the season as Devon Levi and Eric Comrie got the first six games out of the gate. Considering where he ended up, it’s easy to forget Luukkonen got off to a slow start with a .892 save percentage in his first 17 games (14 starts). Things changed