Devon Levi and the weightlessness of expectations

Sabres fans have been impatiently awaiting the goalie's arrival from Northeastern, but he's ready to get to work and focused on his future.

Goalie Devon Levi speaks with media on Monday. He signed a three-year entry-level contract with Buffalo last Friday. (Photo: Joe Yerdon)

Being a goalie and joining the Buffalo Sabres organization comes with weight of history and as well as the heft of expectations. When you’re with the Sabres, the highs of goaltending past come from Hall of Fame talent of years past between Ryan Miller and Dominik Hašek. They’re names from the past, but not so far gone that they seem like history.

With those names fresh in mind, 21-year-old Devon Levi begins his NHL career after he signed his three-year entry-level contract with Buffalo last Friday. His final season at Northeastern came to an end after a 2-1 overtime loss to Providence two weeks ago.

In his two seasons with the Huskies, Levi went 38-22-6 with a .942 save percentage. Last season he led the NCAA with a .952 save percentage which evoked memories of Miller’s time at Michigan State when he won the Hobey Baker Award in his sophomore season when he went 31-5-4 with a .950 save percentage. Levi led the college ranks again this season with a .933 which set him on the path to Buffalo. Joining the Sabres while they’re in the midst of their first honest to goodness playoff push in a decade while goaltending has been a major point of contention could mean the weight of the world would be on his shoulders the moment he plays his first game with the team.

Fortunately for Levi, and everyone else around Sabres fandom, he’s keeping his focus on what he can control.

“The great thing about expectations is they’re not real, they’re just what people are talking about; it’s talk about the future,” Levi said. “The way I’ve always dealt with expectations is kind of not dealing with them. It’s just talk, everyone’s going to have something to say. I love the fans. I’m super excited to be able to play in front of them. And at the same time, going back to Northeastern, there was a lot of expectation that I got to have another great year and this and that.

“But for me, I’m just going to go out and do the thing I love, stop the puck, and I trust that the outcomes are going to take care of themselves. So, I have expectations for myself and my attitude about how I approach the game. And other than that, those are the only expectations that I kind of hold myself to.”

It’s a refreshing and highly mature way to view what’s about to be the start of a career that will be nothing but expectations. Fans are hopeful, and many are expecting, Levi to be the next great Sabres goalie. The hope is that he can be the final piece to go along with Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens, Jack Quinn, Mattias Samuelsson and the rest of the youthful core in place to take the Sabres back to the playoffs and become a regular favorite to win the Stanley Cup.

Going into the job with clear eyes and a clearer mind, yet full of excitement, is all the more reason to feel hopeful that Levi can be that guy. It also means he’ll spend a lot of time watching and preparing himself, not just for this season, but the ones to come down the road.

“For Devon to be here right now, he's gaining (knowledge),” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “We want to give him as much of that hindsight. That was very, very important for me and us as an organization to have Owen Power play eight games at the end of last year. I wanted him to go into the summer with hindsight, playing against Auston Matthews, playing against this team, playing in this situation. Very, very important. So, for Devon, it's the same approach.”

Levi’s performance through college, as well as his play during the 2021 World Junior Championships, set the table for what’s to come. Even though he’s not thinking about expectations, they’re going to be there in spades. His career college numbers fall in line with not just Miller but also Winnipeg Jets goalie and 2020 Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck from his time at UMass-Lowell. Two Vezina winners and the all-time winningest goalie in American history set the bar sky-high to reach. Levi is dead set on carving his own path forward.

“It's pretty cool to be in company of such amazing goaltenders,” Levi said. “During the season, I try not to look at my stats just because, personally, I think the only stat that matters is the win column. So, save percentage, goals against, kind of something that I just look at the end of the year. But yeah, looking back, it's pretty cool. There are a lot of amazing goaltenders that went through college hockey that had amazing careers and are still having amazing NHL careers, so it's cool to be compared to these guys. It's definitely an honor.”

It’s hard enough to have those comparisons follow a player into the professional ranks, but when one of them is a player who had their number retired a few months ago by the team he’s now joining, it would be easy for anyone to feel intimidated by that. Even though Miller last played for the Sabres in 2014, the retrospective on his Sabres career that tied in with his number retirement brought all the memories flooding back. It probably doesn’t help he was the starting goalie the last time the Sabres made the postseason. Instead of intimidation, it’s exhilaration for Levi.

“It's surreal. It's really cool. It's an honor,” Levi said. “I'm just excited for the opportunity, honestly, that they believe in me and for me, I think all I need is an opportunity to go out and play and prove myself so I'm just really excited to do that. Just taking it day by day. And, you know, my focus today is how can I get better for tomorrow.”

The Mentor and Mentee

Levi’s arrival came with the caveat that he would be with the Sabres the rest of the season. There was thought from the outside that he might sign, play one game in Buffalo to get that under his belt, and then head to Rochester in the AHL. That isn’t happening and a key reason for that is the presence of veteran Craig Anderson.

The 41-year-old goaltender has taken on so many roles apart from winning games with the Sabres the past two seasons that it’s no surprise he would play a part in helping bring Levi along into the NHL. Fortunately for the Sabres and for the young goalie, it’s a role he embraces.

Anderson has played this role for Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Eric Comrie and now he takes an even younger player under his tutelage. Perhaps that’s the cost of being the ultimate veteran on the team as well as being a team leader in general, but his wealth of experience is one Levi is eager to tap into.

“He’s a guy I made my decision to come here because this could be his last year and to be able to be goalie partners with him and be around the rink with him, it’s something that I can value and I can get a lot out of,” Levi said. “And he’s been great, he’s been easing me in, taking me under his wing a little. It’s been great to ask him questions and kind of learn the way he thinks the game because he’s such a good goalie, so smart, so good at reading the play.”

After playing more than 700 games in the NHL and winning more than 300 of them, the common sense and levelheadedness that comes from all that experience is invaluable to any player, goalie or otherwise. That Levi can tap into that every day the rest of the season means he can take vital information and apply it to himself all the time and use that to move ahead in his career.

“Be yourself. Take in (everything), observe, and pick your spots on where to engage with people,” Anderson said was some of the first advice he gave. “It’s one of those things. We don’t bite here. We’re here to help him, we’re here to help him be a part of this. If he’s got questions, we’ve all got answers. We’ve all been there. There’s nothing I’ve gone through that he’s not going to go through. He got the opportunity here because of who he is and what he’s done, and that should change because you’ve changed locker rooms, changed sweaters, whatever.”

Having Anderson to play these roles within the locker room has been a luxury. Nothing can replace experience and when a player lacks it, leaning on those who have it to show them the ropes is the next best thing when it comes to preparation. Being prepared is something Levi has done throughout his amateur career and he’s gotten a head start on that already.

While he waits for immigration paperwork to be signed off, he took in Sabres practice on Monday mostly from the bench. He stood by with injured defenseman Mattias Samuelsson and soaked in the action. When practice shifted from line rushes and breakouts to a mini-3-on-3 game with goalies located in one of the attack zones with the goals set up in front of the side walls, Levi changed his point of view.

The Montréal native hopped off the bench and climbed into the stands. There, Levi sat perched behind Anderson’s net watching the action play out in front of him, his eyes darting back and forth following the play. Watching his teammates handling the puck and challenging each other and trying to score, it was a moment that highlighted so much of what all this is about. He’s new to the situation and new to the professional ranks, but he doesn’t stop being a student.

“To take the initiative to do that, walk up in the stands by yourself while you're part of the team, I think it's natural for guys to sit up there, but he was studying it,” Granato said. “The best players that I have been around, elite NHL All Stars, their history is when they were kids they sat at a game and studied it like that. They just put themselves in that situation and that's why they've become great players. They've learned through and taught themselves to learn. The best guys in the game in any business are self-learners. They figure out how to develop themselves. They're very engaged in that process.

"Those who study have a deep, deep passion and think, 'This is the only thing in my life I want to get done and accomplish.' Devon definitely approaches his position very, very seriously. He's accomplished what he's accomplished because he's worked with the coaches he's had very well. He wants to learn more, but he's studied it himself.”

Levi’s immediate Sabres future is full of more questions than answers, and that’s to be expected. We don’t know how many games he’ll play this season; we don't know where he’ll play next season, be it Buffalo or Rochester, and we don't know how well he’ll fare. But he will play and his pedigree says he should be good. His work ethic and drive are exactly what anyone would want to see out of a young player. And even though there will be expectations from coaches, executives, and fans alike, all that matters is how he handles all of it and what he can correct. Anything else is interference to the goal of becoming a top goalie in the NHL.

For a guy who grew up with Carey Price as his idol and had Roberto Luongo not only as a young inspiration but later as a voice within the Florida Panthers’ draft room saying to select him in the 2020 draft, all signs have pointed to now, but this is the first step in what could be a special career.

“(I) just come with the same mentality every day, just consistent mindset coming to the rink,” Levi said. “And just in the past, whatever situation I’ve been put in, regardless of what it was, I’ve just found a way just because of how consistent my approach is to the game and coming in every day. So, whatever happens, happens. I’m going to figure out on the fly how everything goes. I trust the coaching staff and the general managers and all the guys up there to make the right decision.

“I’m just a guy that when my name gets called, go out and stop pucks. That’s what I’m going to do.”