The Edmonton Oilers may have run into a goaltending answer they weren’t exactly shopping for.
Devon Levi’s name already carries some weight for fans who remember his breakout stretch in Buffalo back in 2022-23, when he arrived from Northeastern in the middle of the season and immediately looked capable of changing the Sabres’ mood. He won four of his first five starts, kept them hanging around in the playoff race, and showed the kind of calm that made people think he could be a long-term piece.
Buffalo ultimately fell short, but Levi’s rookie run stood out. He finished that NHL taste with a .901 save percentage and had already built a reputation for steady play at every stop before that, from juniors to World Juniors gold to college.
That history makes what’s happening in Edmonton worth a closer look.
Levi’s first start for the Oilers was a mess on the stat sheet, with seven goals allowed on 22 shots in a wild 9-7 win. That kind of outing can linger with a young goalie. Instead, he got right back in the crease and responded against Seattle with a 19-of-20 performance, capped by a glove save on Jordan Eberle that drew praise from Leon Draisaitl afterward.
The bigger takeaway is not the contrast between those two starts, but how Levi handled the turn from one to the other. In Buffalo, what made him so intriguing was never perfection.
It was the way he read the puck, stayed calm when things got hectic, and kept delivering the same kind of game no matter the stage. Against Seattle, those same traits showed up again.
His puck tracking looked sharper, the rebounds were cleaner, and the rough opener didn’t snowball into something worse.
Edmonton’s situation in net is still unsettled, with Andersen hurt and Jarry still part of the picture. So this is not a case of Levi being handed the job for good. But he does have a real opening to stack starts, and that can matter in a hurry for a goalie trying to carve out trust.
The Oilers don’t need a netminder to be a Vezina candidate. They need someone who can make the timely stop, move on from the last goal, and give the team a chance to win when he’s in the crease.
If Levi can pull even part of what he showed during that near-playoff push in Buffalo, Edmonton may have found something useful in a place where teams are always looking. One rebound from that kind of promise is not the whole story. But it’s enough to keep watching.
In Other News...
Hurricanes Enter Connor Hellebuyck Talk With One Big Timing Question
Around the league, the Connor Hellebuyck chatter has started to settle into a familiar pattern: contenders wondering whether there is a real path to land one of the NHLs top goaltenders, and clubs with questions in net trying to see if the timing can ever line up. Elliotte Friedman reported that the San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets briefly explored a trade involving Hellebuyck, while other teams such as the Oilers and Hurricanes have been floated as fits because of their goaltending situations and their desire to keep pushing toward a championship window.
What makes the discussion interesting is the standard Hellebuyck appears to be using. He is open to San Jose despite the uncertainty around that roster, but his bigger aim is to end up with a team he believes can win the Stanley Cup within the next three years. For Edmonton, that creates a clear but unresolved question: whether the organization can present the kind of immediate contender profile that would make a goalie of Hellebuycks stature view it as the right destination. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Suddenly Face Real Risk With Simon Edvinsson
With the NHL calendar still early, the trade market is already starting to take shape around a few clubs trying to solve very different problems. Detroits situation with Simon Edvinsson has become one of the more notable ones, as contract talks have reportedly run into trouble and the Red Wings are at least looking at trade possibilities if they cannot get the defenseman locked in.
For Edmonton, the ripple effect is less direct but still relevant. The Oilers are weighing ways to add forward depth, and that kind of search can quickly pull other teams into the discussion as front offices look for pieces that fit their needs. Around the league, there is plenty of movement and speculation already, from the Red Wings' uncertainty on the blue line to other clubs testing trade ideas, which is the kind of backdrop that can turn a quiet stretch into a much busier one. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Trade Focus Turns To One Roster Battle Up Front
As the Oilers sift through the early-season picture, the front offices attention has shifted toward a familiar roster question up front: whether to add another forward without paying too steep a price. Edmonton has been linked to the idea of moving a depth defenseman to address the forward group, a type of deal that usually only makes sense if the organization believes it can protect its blue line while improving its scoring depth.
The timing is part of what makes the discussion more interesting. Edmonton is still waiting on key reinforcements at forward, which should ease some of the pressure to act immediately, but the market chatter keeps circling back to which spare defensemen might be available in the right deal. Around the league, there has also been some loose speculation tying several trade requests to USA Olympic roster overlap, though the stronger read is that each situation stands on its own rather than forming some broader trend. [Read more 🡒]