Oilers goalie Devon Levi looks to Hall-of-Famer Grant Fuhr for inspiration

Grant Fuhr laughed as he talked of Devon Levi wearing a remake of his Edmonton Oilers mask from Fuhr’s early NHL days when he shared the crease with Andy Moog.

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“Nice tribute, especially for an old guy. The kids today, they often say, ‘I saw you on YouTube. Means I’m officially old,” laughed the Hall of Famer, voted one of the 100 Greatest Players of all time, acknowledging that the parents of the young goalies today are usually the ones bringing up his name.

Levi did have a long chat with Fuhr after an awards luncheon at the 2025 AHL all-star game in Palm Desert, though, when Fuhr was an honorary captain and guest bench coach. Then, after Levi wound up with the Oilers, traded from the Buffalo organization July 1, the seeds of a Fuhr throwback mask started to take hold.

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“My dad saw Grant growing up and he helped me with the idea. Pretty cool. Right when I got traded, we said, ‘Let’s do it,’ ’’ said Levi, who played his first Oilers game Tuesday in Winnipeg with the Fuhr wire cage look, giving off an ’80s vibe in the exhibition.

“It was super cool to meet the guy for the first time. We talked about the playoffs and being on a great team, the mental battle of that, how he was focused on winning the game, not so much on stats. He had a lot of great knowledge to offer,” said Levi.

“He’s a legend, he locked down the fort, he’s a big reason why they were a dynasty,” said Levi, 24, who can’t believe Fuhr was in the NHL as a teenager, learning on the fly, no slow-and-easy path throughout the minors like goalies today.

“That’s so sick, Grant being in the NHL at 18, looking back on that, what an accomplishment,” said Levi, who will be splitting the Oilers duties with Tristan Jarry while Frederik Andersen gets healthy and they then go to the three-headed monster.

Fuhr, who turns 64 next week, started in the NHL 45 years ago this month. He was playing junior in Victoria in the spring of 1981, and in the NHL a few months later, facing down a series of three-on-one breaks, in a whole lot more 7-4 games than 3-2.

Fuhr was an anomaly then and, especially, now.

“No goalie is playing in the NHL at 18 these days. For some reason they won’t let them on merit or whatever … they don’t want to dump it on their shoulders. They want you in the minors for a long time,” said Fuhr, who lives in the California desert and works in broadcaster for Coachella Valley, Seattle’s AHL affiliate.

“We’re not finding NHL starters until they’re 23 or 24. It’s great that NHL teams are developing their goalies but when do they get the opportunity?” he said.

Fuhr, a rare right catcher in the net, got a kick out of his chat with the lefty Levi, glad to be a sounding board, also glad to be remembered.

“He’s a really smart individual, understands the game. I like the way he plays, he’s acrobatic. We’re starting to see smaller goalies again, where you don’t have to be a 6-foot-6 blocker. You can be six feet. The puck doesn’t know how big you are. We’re going back to where goalies have to be able to read and move,” said Fuhr, who was only 5-foot-10 in his glory days, even shorter than the six-foot Levi.

Like Fuhr, there’s not a lot of lot of letting the pucks hit him to Levi’s game.

“I’m athletic. I think I’ve got a bit of old school in me but I’m trying to calm my game down a bit, be more positionally sound,” said Levi.

The NHL game today is more east-west, certainly in the offensive zone, where players pass up a shot in the high slot for a pass over to the faceoff dots, which sometime seems crazy but they want to make the goalies move laterally. Goalies do have to get across the crease, but that’s right up Levi’s alley.

“You have to use the intellect part of the game, read the game. That’s huge for me. Used to be, you had a big body, blocking a shot. Now you have to be able to move,” said Levi, who uses his glove a lot, like Fuhr did.

Fuhr has long decried that goalies don’t use their mitts enough. Part of that is European goalies don’t play baseball, part of that is blocking shots has been taught more than using the glove to catch the puck.

“Maybe I was guilty of using it a little too much when I was younger. I tried to catch everything. I’m trying more for positional saves now,” said Levi, trying for a better balance in the net.

The game has come around for shorter goalies, though. NHL teams drafted a record 32 goalies in June, and not all of them were 6-foot-4.

“I think a lot of people try to put a science to goaltending when I think it’s an art. It’s a super-creative position. I don’t think there’s a right or a wrong way to do it. You see so many different body types who have done this,” said Levi.

“There’s no one way to keep the puck out of the net. Just be yourself and have fun doing it,” said Levi, who certainly has watched some specific current and retired goalies to pick up tricks of the trade, though.

“I feel I’m a mix of so many goalies over the years, guys I’ve watched, sitting on my couch. Carey Price, (Marc-Andre) Fleury, Grant Fuhr, (Juuse) Saros. So many gifted goalies. You can’t help but go, ‘Wow.’ I’ve tried to take parts of their games and make it your own. You never want to copy and paste,” said Levi.

Style of game, maybe, but Levi also can’t mask his admiration for Fuhr’s gear.

He’s paying homage every day to the iconic Fuhr blue and orange Oilers mask of yore, with the wire cage over the face and the orange oil drop on the chin.

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