- Roberto Luongo personally chose Devon Levi with Florida’s 212th pick in the 2020 draft
- Luongo was in tears on the phone when he called Levi about the Sam Reinhart trade
- Read below for what Levi said about that call and where he fits in Edmonton’s crease
Roberto Luongo was in tears on the phone the day Florida traded away the goalie he had picked himself.
That goalie is Devon Levi, who now belongs to the Edmonton Oilers. Levi sat down with Spittin’ Chiclets in 2023 and explained how he ended up a Panther in the first place, and the answer starts with general manager Bill Zito handing the pick straight to his Hall of Fame special assistant.
“Roberto was given the pick. [Panthers GM] Bill Zito gave it to him and his brother, and he said, ‘Hey, do what you want with it,’ and so he chose me. I was his first pick.”
Levi went 212th overall in 2020, sixth from the bottom of the entire class. He never dressed for Florida. The Panthers packaged him with a first-round pick in July 2021 and sent both to Buffalo for Sam Reinhart.
Asked what happened once the deal went through, Levi described a phone call he clearly wasn’t expecting.
“Roberto Luongo gave me a call a little bit after, and, you know, he was a guy that I looked up to when I was a kid. He was the first NHL goalie that I met, and he was one of the reasons why I became a goalie. When he gave me the call, he was in tears, and it was just heartbreaking. He was heartbroken.”
Watch Levi’s full sit-down with the show:
The Buffalo years never turned into the NHL job Luongo saw coming. Levi made 36 starts for the Sabres and won 17 of them with an .894 save percentage. The rest of his time went to AHL Rochester, where he posted a 23-20-9 record, a 2.83 goals-against average and three shutouts last season.
Edmonton bought low on July 1, sending a 2028 third-round pick to Buffalo for Levi and a 2028 seventh. Here’s how the Oilers announced it:
The 24-year-old lands in a three-goalie setup alongside Tristan Jarry and Frederik Andersen, which gives him a real runway to grab the crease. Our full breakdown of the trade that brought Levi to Edmonton has the rest of the terms.
Luongo isn’t the only franchise goalie in his corner, either. Carey Price was Levi’s boyhood idol growing up in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, and Price reached out with advice five games into his rookie run in Buffalo:
Rogers Place already knows what a hot Levi looks like. He backstopped Canada to silver at the 2021 World Juniors in that building with a .964 save percentage, a mark that erased the Canadian record Price set in 2007.
