It’s only nine games into Devon Levi’s run with the Edmonton Oilers, and the early returns are already loud enough to echo around the NHL.
The Oilers have spent years searching for stability in net, and now they’ve got a goalie who keeps bailing them out when the game starts to tilt. Levi was at it again Monday night, backstopping a 3-1 win over the New York Rangers in a game that was messy in plenty of other places.
Leon Draisaitl didn’t dance around what he saw.
“I think he’s the main reason why we won the game, said Leon Draisaitl. “I don’t think we were terrible, probably not our best, but (he) made the right saves at the right time, and a couple really, really big ones. Honestly, he’s been incredible for us.”
Edmonton got on the board first when Connor McDavid was handed a goal by Rangers goalie Dylan Garand just under seven minutes into the game. Draisaitl added to the lead 2:59 into the second period, and after Jaroslav Chmelar scored coming out of the penalty box, Levi took over from there.
The biggest stop came when J.T. Miller fed Tye Kartye in front of the Oilers net. Kartye tried to finish with a backhand after faking forehand, but Levi read it, dropped into the play and stretched his left leg across the crease to shut it down.
For a team that has seen that kind of odd-man rush turn into a goal against far too often, this one ended differently. Levi erased it.
He stopped 1.92 goals above expected, according to HockeyStats, and picked up his fourth straight win while earning his sixth quality start of the season.
The season numbers still don’t scream dominance on their own. Levi is 8-1 with a .898 save percentage, a 2.75 goals-against average, and 0.3 goals saved above expected, according to HockeyStats. But strip out the seven-goal outing in his first start of the year against the Canucks, and the picture changes fast: a .920 save percentage, a 2.23 goals-against average, and 4.4 goals saved above expected.
Levi isn’t interested in talking about where this all might lead.
“I’m not thinking about my future,” he said. “I’m thinking just about the next game, the team.
“I’m such a small part of this. Just to be here on this team, I’m super, super grateful. It’s been great so far - I’m just excited we got a whole rest of the year to go, and we got more hockey to come.”
That’s fine. The Oilers can handle the bigger-picture talk later.
What matters right now is that Levi looks like the goalie Edmonton has been waiting for. Once viewed as the top goaltending prospect in the world, he’s showing the athleticism that made him such a big name, along with the kind of reads that let him stay ahead of the play. More than anything, he’s giving the Oilers something they’ve badly needed: goaltending that is at least league average, and often better.
That matters in the room, too.
“You have so much trust in him that six-on-four, six-on-five, you’re going to give up a look at some point, they’re pushing to tie the game in the third,” said Draisaitl, continuing, “But having him back there, or having a goalie back there you know can make stops when you need them most is a huge relief. I think our goalies in general this season have done a great job of that.”
Tristan Jarry has also helped steady things after a rough start to his Oilers stint, and he deserves credit for turning that around into league-average-or-better goaltending.
Still, the net belongs to Levi right now. He keeps making the biggest saves when the game asks for them, and that’s the kind of thing that gets noticed fast.
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Ryan Tverberg was recalled from the AHL as part of the roster shuffle, with Vinni Lettieri sent down, a move that at least gives Toronto another body as it tries to steady itself. Sergei Bobrovsky is scheduled to start in net for the upcoming game, but the bigger question for the Leafs is how long they can keep absorbing absences before the standings start to reflect the damage. [Read more 🡒]