[THW] – Attentes des Sabres pour Devon Levi en tant que starter de première année
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Spiritual_Bourbon
@Sabres de Buffalo
[THW] – Attentes des Sabres pour Devon Levi en tant que starter de première année
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Spiritual_Bourbon
4 Comments
### Why Levi Is Exciting
– I’m not saying that Levi is the next Miller or Hellebuyck, but there is reason to expect he will be an effective goaltender at the NHL level solely based on his college dominance, and given his raw talent and statistics, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that he’ll be elite someday, and perhaps sooner rather than later. However, there are some red flags with that projection.
### Causes for Concern
– Levi’s size is a legitimate factor in considering his potential success in the NHL.
– It’s also uncertain whether he can be a workhorse at the NHL level. He should be anticipated to be the Sabres’ starter next season, but he’s never played more than 41 games in a season, and that was when he combined for 34 NCAA games and seven NHL games last season.
– Most goalies develop into NHL-caliber talents around 23 or 24 years old, and being that he’s anticipated to be in a starter role next year, it is possible that he’ll suffer some growing pains entering his first full season in the NHL.
### What to Expect
While these are concrete causes for concern (with age being only a minor concern), it’s more likely that Levi will turn into a stud than not. Taking into account his upper-echelon talent and comparisons between his dominant NCAA career and other premier college netminders, it wouldn’t be surprising for Levi to steal some games for the Sabres and carry the team to a wild-card berth this season.
If I were to make a prediction based on every factor listed here — good and bad — I’d say that fans should expect an output similar to Hellebuyck’s first full season in the NHL when he played 56 games with a .907 SV% and a 2.89 GAA. The difference is, Buffalo’s team is likely better this season than Winnipeg’s was in 2016-17, so Levi’s statistics might even be slightly better, say .910 SV% and a 2.65 GAA. Sabres fans should be excited to watch their goalie of the future in 2023-24.
I’m hopeful that Levi will be an NHL stud, but I think Adams is taking a big risk by counting on a rookie goaltender to carry the team through 40-plus games, and counting on either UPL or Comrie for the rest. Unfortunately, there might not be much of an alternative unless the Sabres way overpay in a trade.
I’m not 100% convinced that KA is done making moves this summer, but so far I think it’s reasonable to say that I’ve been underwhelmed with the moves made so far (outside of a very nice draft).
IMO we really needed a solid #4 d man (Pesci being the best prototype) to shore up our defense, and instead of doing that we seemingly added depth players, which is good but not a solution to said problem.
Also our goaltending situation speaks for itself. I have high hopes for Levi like we all do, and I think he can handle the pressure, but also think it’s unfair to put said pressure on him. Hellebucyk would have been the most extreme option, so no regrets passing on that, but we should still have somebody to turn to if Levi has growing pains. I don’t think that’s UPL and I don’t think that’s Comrie. The best argument for those guys is that the D would look better this year but so far it looks about the same so how is management expecting improved results ?
At the end of the day, I think Levi will be a very good goalie and the worst thing we could have done this summer is overpay for some hyped of FA, which KA has been very good at avoiding. UPL/Comrie also definitely have the potential to bounce back. I still think we’re doing those guys a disservice by not doing more to improve the defense in front of them though. Hope I’m wrong but honestly I think Sens will be a better team out of the gate which hurts our playoff chances.
82 shutouts inbound