Sabres training camp: Levi’s added fire, Ruff’s belief in Samuelsson and more
Plus, Zach Benson's fit on the Sabres' top line and why Zac Jones is making an impression as a depth defender.
www.nytimes.com
In his first two training camps with the Sabres, Devon Levi had a spot on the NHL roster all but guaranteed. He opened the 2023-24 season as the starting goalie and landed on the opening-night roster last season, and started the second game of the season.
This training camp is different. Levi, who finished each of the last two seasons in the AHL, has been skating with Buffalo’s second practice group, which consists mostly of AHL players. The Sabres’ presumed starter, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, is dealing with an injury. But Alexandar Gerogiev, signed by the team last week, and Alex Lyon, who signed as a free agent in July, are the two goalies handling the work with the NHL group.
Levi doesn’t mind the added competition. In fact, competition, he says, is his favorite part of his position.
“I want the challenge,” Levi said. “This is all you can ask for. It’s great to be able to find a way through adversity. It makes me excited. I’m excited to come to the rink and prove to myself and to everyone what I’m capable of.”
It’s easy to forget that this is familiar territory for Levi. He was overlooked in junior hockey and fell to the seventh round of the 2020 NHL Draft. It was only after he dominated at Northeastern University and had a standout showing for Canada at the World Juniors that he became one of the top goalie prospects in the sport.
The Sabres then threw him into the NHL right away, and the seven games he played in the spring of 2023 threw expectations out of whack. The Sabres made him the unquestioned starter heading into the 2023-24 season, but he faltered early in the season and then got hurt. Last season, Levi played in nine NHL games and had a 4.12 goals-against average and .827 save percentage. He then went down to the AHL and put together another strong season.
But those early NHL struggles caused Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams to change his tune and his approach to Levi. Nearly every goalie in NHL history who came through college needed time to develop in the AHL. Adams and the Sabres tried to skip that step with Levi, but are now being more patient.
“Not losing confidence at all,” Adams said at the start of training camp. “I believe in Devon Levi. I just told him this the other day, I have no doubt in my mind he’s going to be a really good National Hockey League goaltender. When is really up to him, and that’s OK. He’s in a situation right now where he’s in a really good place mentally. He’s started to build his game and getting the starts that he needs.”
Adams said when Levi is ready, the Sabres will find a way to make room for him. But he also doesn’t need waivers, so they’re OK with Levi playing in the AHL again. Levi has embraced Rochester, too. But it’s clear he’s not conceding anything in camp, either.
“I had some conversations with Kevyn this summer,” Levi said. “It’s good to hear (that he believes in me) and it’s nice to know. But at the end of the day, even if they didn’t believe in me or whatever other people thought about me, I don’t let that get into my head. I believe in myself. That’s what matters. Just doing what I know works and gives me success every single day. There’s always going to be doubters or people who don’t believe in you. I don’t let that in unless I can let it in and use it as fuel.”
Levi said he feels like he’s at his best when there’s doubt. He likes having those storylines in his head to draw on for added motivation. But he’s also learned the last few seasons that there are times he needs to shut all of that out and lock in on his day-to-day work.
“I want to grow into somebody who can be the best goalie in the NHL,” Levi said. “I know it’s a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. Regardless of where I am right now, up or down, I’m just focusing on what I have to do, what makes me great and what will make me great and just hammering that every single day. Having the discipline to come to work every single day and be intentional about your process, habits and let the results take care of themselves.”
Levi said he learned a lot from James Reimer last season about navigating the low points of a season and a career. He noted that back-to-back Stanley Cup winner Sergei Bobrovsky has a similar steady nature but needed to go through adversity at different points in his career to become that goalie.
“The position that I’m in right now, I’ve been growing so much because of it, because of the adversity, the competition, the highs and the lows,” Levi said. “It really forces you to kind of look inwards and find who you are and the foundation of what makes you you. When things aren’t going well, you can really dig deep and find something. Having that belief and faith when things aren’t going well is one of the biggest and most important keys to being a goalie in the NHL for a long time.
“I just know that I’m on my way and I’m on my journey.”
Here’s what else we learned from Sabres training camp on Friday.
Zach Benson’s fit with Josh Norris and Tage Thompson
Zach Benson will be under a microscope to start the season, assuming Lindy Ruff sticks with the top line of Benson, Josh Norris and Tage Thompson that we’ve seen early in training camp. Ruff already said Benson will have to finish more of his chances to stick up top. He looks a bit more explosive as a skater early in camp, and it will be interesting to see if that translates to the team’s intrasquad scrimmage and preseason games. But what’s also notable is that Benson, even at 20, is someone that guys really like to play with. Thompson went out of his way to talk about that late last season, and Norris is already a fan of having him on his wing.“Benny’s a funny and interesting dude,” Norris said with a laugh. “He’s extremely skilled, and he’s one of those guys that can make a play happen out of nothing. He’s really good in tight and just has a really good mind for the game and spatial awareness. He’s a guy who is easy to read, and as a center, having a winger who can make the little, in-tight plays like that, it makes my job easier.”
That’s the line that will be worth watching closely in preseason. Early on, it looks like the chemistry is there. And it’s worth noting that Rasmus Dahlin shared that Thompson was at the top of the leaderboard in most of the off-ice fitness testing.
“When your best player leads the way, that’s a really, really good thing, so I’m fired up,” Dahlin said.
Mattias Samuelsson has started training on the Sabres’ third pair. (Bob Frid / Imagn Images)
Lindy Ruff isn’t writing off Mattias Samuelsson
Since signing a seven-year, $30 million contract with the Sabres in October 2022, Mattias Samuelsson has struggled to live up to his new salary. Injuries have provided constant obstacles. And then last season, he was in the spotlight for being one of the players on the ice who failed to respond when Stefan Noesen drilled Thompson with a high hit.Samuelsson has started camp playing on the third pair with Conor Timmins. That could limit his minutes a bit and help him stay healthy, but Ruff said he still wouldn’t mind seeing Samuelsson playing north of 20 minutes per game.
“I think for him it’s just growth by going through what he went through last year,” Ruff said. “Kind of off to a rough start, sat out games. Didn’t feel that his level of fitness was good enough coming to camp (last year). And I can tell you, this year, there’s no comparison.”
A healthy and effective Samuelsson would give the Sabres strong depth at the position. Not many players are coming into the season with as much to prove as Samuelsson.