The Edmonton Oilers have been doing homework on Buffalo Sabres goalie prospect Devon Levi, and that alone tells you how wide open the crease picture is in Edmonton right now.
Elliotte Friedman said Monday on the 32 Thoughts podcast that Edmonton was one of the teams that put in “some real research” on Levi, though nothing came together.
"I heard Buffalo had Devon Levi out there quite a bit on the weekend," Friedman said. "And I heard one team that did some real research into him was Edmonton, but obviously that [trade] didn't happen.
Look, if they get a Hellebuyck deal done, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is clearly going to other way, but I don't know what Levi's future is going to be in Buffalo. So, that'll be an interesting one to watch."
The Oilers’ goaltending depth chart is thin. Right now, Tristan Jarry is the only goalie under contract for next season, and his arrival from Pittsburgh in December did not solve Edmonton’s problems. The Oilers finished 29th in team save percentage in 2025-26 at .883, and Jarry posted an .857 save percentage in 19 games.
That opens the door for just about any serious goalie conversation, including a possible run at a high-profile name such as Connor Hellebuyck, Jordan Binnington or Sergei Bobrovsky. But the market will be crowded, and Edmonton has also shown interest in a different kind of swing: a young goalie with upside and runway.
That’s where Levi comes in.
Buffalo has reason to move quickly if it wants anything meaningful back. Levi would need to clear waivers to return to the AHL, and the Sabres know that’s essentially not happening given his pedigree and the numbers he has put up in the minors. Buffalo general manager Jarmo Kekalainen already said the team plans to keep a three-goalie rotation because of the changing EBUG rules, which only adds another wrinkle to Levi’s path.
And Levi doesn’t look like a player eager to spend a fourth straight season with the Rochester Americans.
He came to Buffalo in 2023 after a standout college run at Northeastern, where he won the Mike Richter Award twice. The 24-year-old Canadian handled his first NHL look reasonably well, finishing the stretch run of the 2022-23 season with a .905 save percentage in seven games. Since then, though, the NHL results have been rougher, with a .892 SV% over 32 appearances across the next two seasons.
In Rochester, the performance has been stronger. Levi has played 120 regular-season games over the past three campaigns and posted a .914 save percentage, along with a .917 mark in 16 playoff games. Even with that production, he has not climbed past the organizational logjam.
Buffalo’s current goalie group for next season already includes UPL, Alex Lyon and Colten Ellis, and even if Luukkonen is moved, Friedman indicated it would likely be in another goalie deal. That leaves Levi looking like the odd man out.
The clock is working against the Sabres now. The longer they wait, the more leverage they lose, and the return for Levi is likely to stay modest anyway. He was drafted by Florida in the seventh round in 2020, then landed in Western New York a year later in the Sam Reinhart trade.
For Edmonton, the appeal is obvious. Levi is 6-foot, 192 pounds, a profile some front offices still won’t touch, but he has produced at every step. He’s also on a contract that would pay a little over $800,000 next season and still sits three years from unrestricted free agency.
If the Oilers brought him in, Levi could walk into camp with a real shot at the starting job. If they land one of the bigger names on the market, he could still compete for the backup role and potentially 20-plus starts.
For a team that has spent years searching for a steady answer in net, that kind of gamble makes sense.
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The deal also changes the shape of Buffalos summer business in a meaningful way. With just under $10.8 million in cap space, the Sabres still have two restricted free agents left to sort out, and Malenstyns new contract gives the front office a clearer picture of how much flexibility remains as those negotiations move ahead. [Read more 🡒]