Sit down with Goaltender Topias Leinonen at Buffalo Sabres 2025 Development Camp
We are at Sabers development camp talking now with goalender Topius Lenin who is a part of your fourth development camp at this point. How beneficial are these for you?
Uh yeah it’s it’s always fun funny to come come Buffalo and come to development camp. That’s always nice and uh there’s a lot of lot of good players and a lot of nice stuff. So it’s always nice to be here.
You were drafted by the Sabres in 2022. A year ago, you went from playing in Finland, where you had been your whole life, to the Alpenskin League in Sweden. What was that transition like?
I had a couple hard hard year in Finland. So, yeah, my agent wants to try something new. So, uh then we choose hockey as good choice. Uh a lot of lot of games and uh healthy year. So, I’m happy with that. You come from a family of hockey players. Your father was a goalender all over Europe. Is he a a big influence to you?
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Uh he was uh every game and uh helps helps if I need need something, but uh he don’t want to coach me because uh he knows I have a lot of good coaches. So,
is he the reason you wanted to be a goalender?
For sure. When I was a kid, I I I am on the on the game and uh watching watching him. So, yeah, that’s that’s the one reason there’s an opportunity in front of you now to make the transition to North America potentially with the Rochester Americans. Do you feel ready for that move to the States?
Yeah. Yeah, I I feel ready for sure. I need a pretty good uh summer now, but uh body feels good and uh I think I’m ready now. I go back back to home and back to work with my with my coaches. So, uh we have a pretty good plan with them and uh just keep going and uh then I’m ready. We’re excited to see more of Utopias. Thanks for your time. Thank you.
Andrew Mossbrooks sat down this week with Buffalo Sabres Prospect Goaltender Topias Leinonen to talk about Development Cam and also his outlook for next year playing in North America for the first time in his professional career.
