The Buffalo Sabres are getting an unplanned addition to the development path of two of their top prospects.
Michigan defenseman Owen Power and Northeastern goaltender Devon Levi, who both joined the organization in July, are heading to Beijing to compete for Team Canada at the Olympics. And they'll be joined on the roster by former Sabres veteran Eric Staal.
The trio was named to the team Tuesday as part of a roster that includes several minor leaguers and NHL prospects, as well as a smattering of former NHL veterans. The roster was inadvertently leaked by the International Ice Hockey Federation on Monday on its Twitter page and then quickly taken down. It was confirmed Tuesday morning by Hockey Canada in a previously scheduled roster reveal show.
Ultimately, Power's goals for the season probably remain the same. The path to get there has gone quite a bit different than anyone would have expected, Mike Harrington says.
"The Olympics, especially for a country like Canada, are so, so deep with talent. They're two guys we're very proud of," Sabres coach Don Granato said on a video call from Ottawa before Tuesday's game against the Senators. "They've had tremendous years in college hockey. One of them I've known for a while in Owen Power. And Devon Levi, I just keep hearing story after story about what a good person and obviously a great player he is becoming."
"I look at this as an opportunity on a development path of another stage and another learning-type experience," Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams said. "I look at it as a tremendous honor and a lot of positives."
Both players will be leaving their college teams at the height of their conference seasons. Michigan (19-7-1) is ranked fourth in the USCHO.com poll, while Northeastern (16-7-1) is No. 15. Team Canada will train over the next week in Switzerland before heading to China. Its first Olympic game is Feb. 10 vs. Germany.
The 6-foot-5 Power, Buffalo's No. 1 overall pick in the NHL draft in July, has three goals, 23 assists and 26 points in 24 games this season at Michigan and is one of the favorites for the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey's top player. His assist and point totals are already career highs.
An Olympic spot will give the 19-year-old a unique, three-pronged status among players who have yet to appear in the NHL, as he will have played for Canada at the World Championships in May in Latvia, the World Juniors in December in Edmonton (before the tournament was canceled) and now the Olympics. Power's hat trick vs. Czechia in the second of his two World Junior games was the first by a Canadian defenseman in tournament history.
"He's attacked the season," Adams said. "This player, to me, sums up the type of people we want on the Buffalo Sabres and in our locker room, people that get up every day and want to be better. And you see the growth that he's taken this year, certainly going back and being part of a great college hockey team."
In his first year of college play, Levi has had a breakout season and is a prime candidate for both the Hobey Baker and the Mike Richter Award for the top college goalie. He has started all 24 games for Northeastern this season, going 16-7-1 with a 1.55 goals-against average and .948 save percentage while compiling nine shutouts. He leads the NCAA in shutouts, is tied for the top spot in save percentage and is second in GAA. The shutout total is three shy of the NCAA record of 12 set by Niagara's Greg Gardner in 1999-2000.
The 19-year-old goalie broke Carey Price’s record at the IIHF World Junior Championship with a .964 save percentage in seven games for Canada at the annual tournament.
Levi was acquired by the Sabres from the Florida Panthers in July in the trade for Sam Reinhart. A silver medalist at the 2021 World Juniors, he will compete for playing time with 31-year-old Edward Pasquale, a longtime AHL goalie now playing in the KHL, and Matt Tomkins, a 27-year-old now playing in Sweden for Frolunda, the team that produced Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.
"It is an experience that is extremely unique, extremely rare," Granato said. "And there's no Olympian that would probably be able to tell you that there wasn't some life-changing component to becoming an Olympian. So to have two young, talented guys like that, that opportunity is a real bonus for us as an organization."
Staal, 37, has not appeared in the NHL this season and prepared for his role in the Olympics by playing four games for the Iowa Wild of the AHL. He played 32 games for the Sabres last season before being sent to Montreal before the trade deadline. Other notable names on the team include former Montreal forward David Desharnais and defenseman Jason Demers, who played 699 NHL games with four teams.
Team Canada's general manager is longtime Arizona Coyotes forward Shane Doan. The coach will be former Boston and Montreal bench boss Claude Julien. They stepped in after the NHL opted not to attend the Games. The team's scheduled GM was St. Louis' Doug Armstrong, and Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper was slated to be the coach.
