The Edmonton Oilers have added a goalie, but this is not the kind of move that calms a nervous fan base.
Devon Levi is the newest name in the crease picture, yet he arrives as a bet rather than a sure thing. For a team trying to sort out its goaltending, that matters.
The Oilers are not going to chase a Stanley Cup with Tristan Jarry and Levi carrying the load, at least not as things stand now. Until something else changes in goal, that’s the setup.
If Edmonton was hoping for a proven veteran to walk in and take pressure off, this wasn’t that kind of acquisition. Levi is still an unknown at the NHL level, and that makes the gamble pretty clear.
He was Buffalo’s seventh-round pick, 212th overall, in the 2020 draft, and the upside is still there for him to become the goalie that once drew attention in that organization. But right now, he’s exactly what the numbers say he is: unproven.
His NHL résumé is thin and rough. Levi owns a career .894 save percentage, and in nine games for Buffalo two years ago, he went 2-7 with an .872 save percentage. That’s the risk Edmonton is taking as it tries to stabilize a position that has been a problem for the past two seasons.
The cost, at least, was manageable. The Oilers only gave up a third-round draft pick, and Levi comes in at $812,000. That makes the move cheap enough to justify, even if it doesn’t exactly scream fix.
Levi, for his part, has leaned into the challenge of climbing the ladder in Buffalo’s system. “It wasn’t easy,” he said of trying to make his way up the food chain in Buffalo’s organization. “There was lots of adversity, but that adversity was amazing for me, the best thing that could have happened to prepare me for what’s to come.”
He also believes his size can work in his favor. “I do believe the game is changing, you are seeing a lot more smaller goalies have success,” he said.
“You’ve got Jet Greaves, you’ve got Juuse Saros, Dustin Wolf, Mike DiPietro. We’re all about the same height.
A lot of these guys are having tremendous years. The game is so much more intellectual, the puck moves so much faster, as a goalie you have to be able to fill the net.
It’s not enough to just stand there and get hit because guys are able to put the puck where they want.’”
There were other names available, too, and bigger ones at that. Jacob Markstrom went to Florida, while Sebastian Cossa, a 2021 first-round pick at 15th overall, ended up in Utah.
Edmonton, though, came away with Levi. Now the question is whether that’s a hidden answer or just another roll of the dice.
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