The 21-year-old goalie is a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, presented annually to recognize the top NCAA men's hockey player.
Levi, who recently completed his junior season at Northeastern University, was 17-12-5 with a 2.24 goals-against average and led the NCAA with a .933 save percentage. He was named Hockey East Goalie of the Year, Player of the Year and was a First Team All-Conference pick this season.
"The organization is just such a good organization," Levi said Monday. "I think the way that (general manager) Kevyn (Adams) has brought me in and showed me his vision, I share a lot of the same morals and visions that he does with his group. He's trying to get a lot of good people, not only good hockey players, but just quality human beings, and he's doing it the right way, so it was a decision that I took my time to make sure it was the right one.
"When I made up my mind, it was an easy decision. I just felt in my heart that I wanted to be a Sabre."
Levi (6-foot, 184 pounds) won the Mike Richter Award as the nation's best goalie last season and is a finalist this season. Selected by the Florida Panthers in the seventh round (No. 212) of the 2020 NHL Draft, he was traded to the Sabres on July 24, 2021.
The native of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Canada, will join the Sabres once he clears immigration and remain with them for the rest of the season.
"We'll go day by day," Adams said Friday. "It's something [coach Don Granato] and I have talked about. We first [have] got to get him up to speed and get him around the guys, get him comfortable. You always want to set, whether it's a goaltender that's young coming in, a defenseman, forward, you want to set players up for success. You want to put them in a situation that you believe they can thrive. We're open to it and we'll go day by day and once we feel that he's comfortable and where he needs to be, then we'll see where we're at."
Levi led the NCAA with a .952 save percentage in 2021-22, the second-highest in mark in NCAA history, when he was 21-10-1 with a 1.54 GAA and 10 shutouts.
"He's sitting in the stands watching and studying the goaltenders and shooters and you could see how dialed in he was and he is," Granato said. "That's one of his attributes. I mentioned it before. He's very engaged in taking initiative to develop himself. I'm excited to get him on the ice after watching him at prospect camp in the summer time and now that he's here.
The Sabres (33-30-6) have lost three in a row and nine of 11 (2-7-2). They were defeated 7-0 by the Boston Bruins at KeyBank Center on Sunday and are six points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with 13 games remaining.
Buffalo hasn't made the playoffs since 2010-11, the longest postseason drought in NHL history.
NHL.com independent correspondent Heather Engel and deputy managing editor Adam Kimelman contributed to this report
