The Top 25 Under 25 is a collaboration by members of the Die By The Blade community. It was a combination of staff writers and over 200 readers that ranked Buffalo Sabres players under the age of 25 as of August 1, 2024. Each participant used their own metric of current ability and production to rank each player. Staff votes counted equally with reader votes.
Devon Levi
Drafted: 2020 – 212th overall
Position: Goaltender
Born: December 27, 2001 (22 years old)
2023-24 Stats: Buffalo Sabres (NHL) 3.10 GAA, .899 sv% in 23 GP; Rochester Americans (AHL) 2.42 GAA, .927 sv% in 26 games (2.57 GAA, .923 sv% in 5 playoff games).
2023 T25U25 Ranking: 4
2022 T25U25 Ranking: 9
Devon Levi will suffer the unfortunate fate of slipping down four spots in this ranking while in many ways actually bettering the impression fans have of him. Funny how that works doesn’t it?
The 22 year old goalie had sparkled at the end of the 2022-23 season in limited ice time, winning five games in seven starts with the season already down the tubes. Backing up Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen last season as the Finn came into his own and blossomed as the Sabres #1 showed that Levi needed some more time to develop.
Chatter that Levi could be a trade piece seems unfounded and unnecessarily hasty. There is certainly a lot of talent there, and I am always hesitant to judge a goalie when the team in front of him is dysfunctional like Buffalo has been for the last couple of seasons.
He did well pushing UPL when it looked like there was an open competition for the starting spot at the beginning of the season, but also showed that with his young age he wasn’t quite ready to shoulder the heavy workload that comes with playing even 2/3rds of the season in net.
Best case scenario for the Sabres is that Levi ends up as a genuine 1B type goaltender alongside UPL, giving the Sabres their first rock-solid tandem between the pipes since.. Ryan Miller and Marty Biron? Oooh, remember when Buffalo had Mika Noronen too back then?!
Given how long goalies take to develop and hit their ceiling, there is no reason to cut bait with the Canada youth standout this early. General Manager Kevyn Adams will likely continue to maintain the three-headed goalie monster this upcoming season with the addition of James Reimer on a one-year deal.
We could see UPL playing between 45-55 games this season especially if he picks up minor niggles here and there, with Reimer and Levi splitting the rest. Should the Finn be more durable and former Leaf Reimer keep the Sabres competitive, then there’s no reason to take Levi away from Rochester and let him keep developing and building up the stamina that it takes to play night after night.
Editor’s Note: We had a small error in publishing, which resulted in Levi’s #8 spot not being published in the correct order, and profiles on both Zach Benson (#7) and Bowen Byram (#6) were incorrectly numbered. Those profiles will be reposted shortly with their correct numbers, to keep everything in order. Sorry for any confusion!
2024 Buffalo Sabres Top 25 Under 25
#25: Adam Kleber
#24: Tyson Kozak
#23: Maxim Štrbák
#22: Prokhor Poltapov
#21: Aleksandr Kisakov
#20: Viktor Neuchev
#19: Vsevolod Komarov
#18: Nikita Novikov
#17: Anton Wahlberg
#16 Isak Rosén
#15 Peyton Krebs
#14: Noah Östlund
#13: Konsta Helenius
#12: Ryan Johnson
#11: Ryan McLeod
#10: Mattias Samuelsson
#9: Jiri Kulich
