There’s an undeniable ease about Devon Levi. Northeastern’s star goalie seems to wear a permanent smile beneath his mask. On this day at Sabres development camp, Buffalo’s next great hope in net strides toward the practice rink at Harborcenter, his dark brown curls bouncing out of the back of his helmet. In a hushed tone, a man says to his son, “That’s Devon Levi.” A group of kids starts chanting, “You’re the future!”
This is what Levi wanted when he chose to go back to school for another season. He already won the Mike Richter Award as the best goalie in college hockey. His numbers — a .954 save percentage, 1.54 goals against average, and 10 shutouts — were a stunning continuation of his record-setting performance for Canada in the 2021 World Juniors. Levi, it seems, wouldn’t have much else to prove. In making his decision to go back to school, Levi took into account the challenge of repeating what he did last season. What would it feel like, he thought, to have all eyes on him as the returning Richter Award winner? How would he handle the external pressure? After being overlooked for so long, how would he handle all of the positive attention and maintain his edge?
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So Levi is soaking it all in. He’s posing for pictures and signing autographs, embracing the growing expectations Sabres fans have for him. He doesn’t want to rush his development, because all of this, including the fanfare in a playoff-starved market, is part of his preparation for what’s to come.
“Devon just wants to play hockey,” said Marco Raimondo, Levi’s personal goalie coach for the last four years. “That’s what people don’t get. In 14 years of coaching, I’ve coached a lot of kids. And everything is always about making the NHL. It’s not like that for Devon. It’s different. With Devon, he just wants to be the best goalie he can be, he wants to play hockey and he wants to have fun doing so. He’s not results driven. That’s what is going to make this guy special.”
Raimondo is transparent about his bias when it comes to Levi. He feels like a fan when he talks about him because their bond has grown so strong. It started years ago when, by chance, Raimondo and his wife were seated at the same table as the Levis at a bar mitzvah. Raimondo had coached against Levi, a Montreal native, in Quebec midget hockey, so he knew of him. And the two instantly hit it off.
“The way my wife tells it she felt like a third wheel that night because Devon and I were just talking goalie,” Raimondo said.
Once they started working together, Raimondo could tell Levi wasn’t going to be like any pupil he’d had before. He’s as eager for information as anyone Raimondo has worked with. The two are often sending goalie clips to one another and talking through different scenarios. Why did this goalie do this? What was he thinking here? Then they incorporate those into practice sessions. They have notebooks full of ideas.
And Levi always wants to work. Raimondo laughs remembering a Friday night last summer. Most kids Levi’s age in Montreal would be out on the town, but Raimondo got a Facetime call from Levi. He was in his full gear, stopping shots.
That’s a common theme with Levi. When Mike Condon, Levi’s goalie coach at Northeastern, showed up to the rink to meet Levi for the first time, he couldn’t find him. He asked the coaching staff where he was and they told him he was out back taking shots since the ice wasn’t in the rink yet. Sure enough, Condon went back to find Levi in full gear.
“In all of our conversations early on you could really sense how eager and genuinely curious he was and is to always be improving and trying to optimize his game,” Condon said. “The hardest part with him is getting him to almost calm down and do less and trust the efficiency of the work. That’s kind of what the next step is.”
Levi is willing to listen to input from everywhere and try anything in his pursuit to become a better goaltender. During the offseason, he still works with Raimondo. During the season, most of his conversations are with Condon and Sabres goalie development coach Seamus Kotyk, but he and Raimondo are always in touch. During the season, Levi is often putting in eight to nine hours of work on hockey between on-ice practices, off-ice training, and video sessions. That’s in addition to his classwork as a computer science major.
“He has an engineer mind where things are going to add up and you’re going to get a final answer,” Raimondo said. “That’s how I see him compute the game. He knows if he’s going to be in this spot, it maximizes his ability to stop that puck. He’s also just a quick athlete. It’s proving to be such a deadly combination. The reason why this kid is going to be one of the best goaltenders is just because he’s so freaking obsessed with the position that it’s scary. He does not get bored with it. He always finds ways to get better.
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“He always does these little things that prove that he’s special. He’s that much different than everybody else.”
To that end, Levi developed an in-game routine that is perfectly on-brand for the person his coaches describe. The routine is best illustrated by the most intense moments, like Northeastern’s regular-season finale at Merrimack College. A win would give the Huskies their first-ever regular-season Hockey East title. But it was senior night at J. Thom Lawler Rink, where alcohol sales are permitted. The rink, which seats only 2,500 fans, was lively. The fans in the cramped building created an atmosphere that was unsympathetic to Northeastern’s title chase.
Levi found calm in the chaos. Like he does during every T.V. timeout during every game, he skated out toward the blue line, turned toward the net, and dropped to his knees. He closed his eyes and started breathing. He recently discovered meditation and found it to be the ideal way to fill the otherwise idle time. When the whistle blows to signal an impending faceoff, Levi pops up and gets back in the net refocused. The practice is rooted in Levi’s desire to stay present in the moment and not let his thoughts about the future cloud his head.
Sabres prospect Devon Levi. Photo provided by Northeastern University.Condon said people always text him wondering what Levi is doing. Most coaches don’t bother to ask, knowing better than to mess with a goalie’s routine. But Levi’s routine is one borne out of his wisdom and molded by his childlike joy. He said it is derived from his and his father’s shared love of “Star Wars”. There is a scene in which Qui Gon is dueling Darth Maul. A force field appears around Qui Gon, and he sits down, closes his eyes, and starts meditating.
“My dad loves that scene and he kind of got me on it and I thought it was pretty cool,” Levi said. “There’s nothing else to do during a TV timeout that will stop the puck in the next shift, so might as well take it as an opportunity to recenter and focus.
“I had my first TV timeout ever during the World Juniors. I didn’t know what to do. I was like do I go to the bench? Do I stay here? I just sat down and started breathing and it became a routine and I loved it. It made me feel good going into the next shift and engaged, so I kept doing it.”
Once during a game, Levi was waiting to hear the whistle and never heard it. The ref dropped the puck while he was still facing the net. His teammates were screaming at him to get back in the net. Condon joked with him that maybe he should at least keep his back to the net while he’s doing it.
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As someone who spent the last decade climbing through the ranks of college, minor, and pro hockey as a goalie, Condon understands what it’s like to be in Levi’s spot. So he knows better than most not to mess with Levi’s method for getting in the right head space. Condon also knows there’s science behind what Levi does. He didn’t learn about the importance of breath during games until later in his career, but it became a critical way for him to reset. When the puck is cleared down the other end of the ice, the challenge for a goalie is getting as calm as possible before it’s coming back the other way. How much can you lower your heart rate?
“No matter what Devon is feeling I can tell you he’s not always calm and composed,” Condon said. “I don’t think anybody is in this sport, so many thoughts creep in. It’s about being ok with those thoughts creeping in and not getting alarmed when that happens. Being calm when nothing is calm around you is the cool part.”
Levi was exactly that in the season finale against Merrimack. He stopped 29 shots in a shutout, and Northeastern won 1-0 with a goal in the closing seconds of regulation. The training, mental and physical, paid dividends.
Condon incorporates stress inoculation work into the week, which involves jumping on an exercise bike for a minute at full effort and then getting off and juggling racquet balls with your heart rate still elevated. He’s trying to simulate the environment Levi will feel during a game. When a goalie gets scored on during a game, the body is flooded with emotions and hormones. If Condon can replicate a similar bodily response in practice, Levi can better handle those feelings during a game.
That’s the level you get to work on with a goalie like Levi. He’s so technically sound and thinks about the game on such a high level. Finding ways to fine tune becomes the next step. And Levi considers the mental and emotional aspects of the game the most important parts of goaltending.
“It’s easy to make a save in practice with no pressure,” Levi said. “But if it’s game seven, Stanley Cup final in overtime, are you still going to make that save? If you’re able to stay mentally calm and do what you’re doing, treat every puck with equal value then it’s going to be easier to make the save.”
Levi is taking that same approach to his development. Condon said he has no doubt Levi could play in the AHL next season without any issue. Sabres fans are certainly eager to see him in the net, but Condon appreciates the way Levi came to his decision. Yes, Levi wants to learn to deal with the external pressure that comes with success. He also wants the experience of digging for new motivation and trying to repeat that success. The Sabres aren’t rushing him, either. Goalies take longer to develop, and they want him to be ready when he makes the jump.
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“He knows how we feel about him,” Kotyk said. “We’re here to support. That’s an organizational emphasis in terms of development. We want to support the player and help build them to their dreams and their goals. It doesn’t need to be this year, it doesn’t need to be next year. It’s when it’s right. You want someone who can accept pressure. You want to have players who can handle the pressure. Obviously he’s not shying away from it. You have to respect it. I have no doubt in my mind he’s going to play the same way. He’s going to be what he is and who he is. I’m just excited for him and his team that they can achieve their goals. That’s what I want to see. I want to see Northeastern have another run and maybe make it to another regional. I want to see him handle the stage and be impactful on the stage.”
Condon thinks Levi is smart to give himself another season to learn those lessons in the college environment. Condon got the benefit of playing four years at Princeton and having a college degree before he turned pro. He felt like he had nothing to lose because he had the security of his education. Levi isn’t likely to play four years at Northeastern. He’s a more highly regarded prospect than Condon was and will deal with a different type of pressure. Nobody expected much from Condon. A lot is expected of Levi.
“How do you deal with that?” Condon said. “I’m asking because I never had to deal with it. How are we going to attack this? What are our mental approaches? What are our physical approaches? How are we thinking of games? How are we thinking of practices? We have another whole year to do that, to grow, to make mistakes. I think he’s going to be a great professional goalie. I’m happy he’s doing what’s best for him and taking his time. Because delayed gratification is something that generation doesn’t really understand either.”
This is all part of the equation for Levi. He always knew he wanted to play college hockey because it allows a goalie more time. He took an extra year in midget hockey and is taking the slower path now. In the past, Levi took that path out of necessity. In his draft year, Levi had a 1.47 goals against average, .941 save percentage, a 34-2-1 record and eight shutouts playing in the CCHL. He still fell to the seventh round because he was too small. Now he’s just under 6-foot-1, plenty big enough to thrive in the NHL.
But when he does turn pro, Levi wants to be prepared. There’s a change that happens when you transition from prospect to professional. The clock starts and expectations change. Condon equates teams handling prospects to air traffic control dealing with planes. Once a plane lands, another one is always coming down the runway.
“As much as you are there to develop in the American League, it’s still very much a sink or swim type scenario, for goalies especially,” Condon said. “It doesn’t really matter the prospect that you are.
“Struggles are going to come as they should when you’re doing anything that’s challenging. You want the waves. You don’t want to be riding in a lake. You want to put your sails up and go off on an adventure. Crazy things are going to come up. Just try to put your best form of armor on that you can. Get good with your mental health and just know what kind of person you are and still be able to smile when things don’t go your way. It’s not always going to. That’s the moral of the story right now.
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For now, Levi is on top of the world as much as a hockey prospect can be. The idea of Devon Levi excites Sabres fans. And why shouldn’t it? Levi has the big personality and positive attitude to match his on-ice skill set. He’s the type of player the team has longed for in goal and the type of person Kevyn Adams has sought out in this rebuilding effort.
Raimondo says he feels fortunate to have crossed paths with Levi because he knows he would have been good no matter which coach he worked with. You can hear the zeal in Raimondo’s voice as he talks about Levi and what the future could hold.
“I have goosebumps thinking about it, but I know this kid is going to win a Stanley Cup,” Raimondo said. “I know that everything he’s doing is building toward him being a Stanley Cup Champion. I know it in my heart. I see the way he goes about things and it takes a really really special person to be a part of a Stanley Cup-winning team. I think he’s subconsciously building himself to be that person. I think Buffalo is lucky.”
(Photos provided by Northeastern University)
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