The Detroit Red Wings traded Sebastian Cossa to the Utah Mammoth on Friday night for the No. 23 overall pick in the 2026 first round, and that immediately reset the conversation around Devon Levi. If that is the price for one young goalie, Buffalo has a new benchmark for what it might ask if it ever decides Levi is available.
That matters now because Levi is being searched as a possible trade piece at the same moment the young-goalie market is getting a clearer shape. He and Cossa have been mentioned side-by-side as comparable targets, with a handful of older goalies also in the mix, so the Cossa deal does more than move a name off one roster. It gives the Buffalo Sabres a concrete return to measure against.
Levi also brings a different profile than Cossa. He has played more professional games, including in the NHL, which would normally help a seller argue that the résumé is deeper and the projection more tested. But he was worse in 2025-26 at the AHL level than he was the season before, and that makes his value harder to pin down. A goalie with more experience but a weaker most recent season is not the same clean asset as a younger player who is still trending up.
Buffalo's own goaltending picture adds another layer. The Sabres got solid contributions in 2025-26 from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Alex Lyon, and Colton Ellis, but none of them feel like Stanley Cup-winning goalies. That is why Levi keeps surfacing in the first place: the organization has bodies in the crease, but not a clear long-term answer that removes the question entirely.
The unresolved part is not whether a trade market exists. It does. The question is what Buffalo would actually ask for Levi after seeing Cossa bring back a first-round pick. The Cossa deal suggests the Sabres could start high, but Levi's uneven AHL season means the exact number would be argued in every room that calls.
For now, that is the story: Cossa has a price, and Levi does not. The gap between those two facts is where Buffalo's next goalie decision will be made.
