‘Voice of the Amerks’ Stevens having fun with one final experience

Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author

The bus rumbled down Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania late Saturday evening, taking the Rochester Individuals from Wilkes-Barre to Hershey for the workforce’s regular-season finale.

Don Stevens was on that bus, similar to he has been for 40 seasons with one of many AHL’s most storied franchises. These late-night rides really feel very acquainted for Stevens, who’s winding down a 58-year broadcasting profession.

Via some scheduling serendipity, Stevens’ ultimate regular-season sport got here at Big Middle in opposition to the Bears; almost 200 of the three,300-plus AHL video games he has referred to as have been Rochester vs. Hershey.

And whereas the Amerks spent the final a number of weeks of the season scratching to get into the Calder Cup Playoffs, for Stevens it was one thing akin to the previous tv present This Is Your Life. Stevens, 77, introduced final summer season that the 2025-26 season can be his ultimate one behind the Rochester microphone, sparking a season-long celebration of a piece that took him to stops equivalent to Salt Lake Metropolis, San Diego, Phoenix and Seattle earlier than he was employed in Rochester.

The previous couple of weeks alone, previous associates and colleagues have made their approach to Rochester to assist see Stevens off. Others despatched long-distance greetings. The Amerks held Don Stevens Night time on April 4, with a dozen members of the family flown in to assist have a good time. A Don Stevens bobblehead was donated to the Hockey Corridor of Fame. His broadcast accomplice of 20 years, former Amerks defenseman John Bednarski, made a shock return to the sales space. He was feted in Buffalo, honored in Cleveland and Syracuse. He threw out the primary pitch at a Rochester Pink Wings baseball sport. He acquired the important thing to town from Mayor Malik Evans, and a Don Stevens Day proclamation from Monroe County govt Adam Bello.

“Their objective in life, I’m satisfied of this,” Stevens mentioned of his co-workers within the Amerks entrance workplace, “is to make me speechless.”

The journey, particularly with 58 years of it, is sporting on him. Stevens reduce on his highway schedule this season, with Amerks broadcast coordinator Andrew Mossbrooks stepping in to hold a few of the load. He has additionally been very public about wanting to depart whereas his efficiency degree continues to be excessive.

“I do know I’m making much more errors than I used to,” Stevens defined, “and I don’t see in addition to I used to.”

He says that he put a few years of thought into reaching his determination to step apart. And at the same time as the tip has come nearer and nearer, he has not had any second ideas.

“I feel, if something, my ideas have been cemented on the explanation why it’s time,” he mentioned.

However nobody actually cares about critiquing his work, even when his personal excessive requirements have saved him doing precisely that till the ultimate weeks or months of his profession.

One broadcast sales space that requires no bus rides is Rochester’s, which the workforce named after him in 2023. Rochester has grow to be residence for the product of Wainwright, Alta. He had moved 14 occasions in 18 years earlier than being employed by common supervisor George Bergantz in the summertime of 1986. He anticipated his cease with the Amerks to final solely a few years earlier than it was time to maneuver on once more. However he and his younger household made the Flower Metropolis residence.

“I do not forget that Seymour Knox IV picked me up on the airport the day I arrived,” Stevens recounted, “and he mentioned, ‘You’re going to like Rochester as a result of the followers are so particular.’

“And he was completely appropriate on that.”

In Stevens’ first season, the Amerks gained the Calder Cup. They made seven Finals appearances in 14 years, profitable all of it once more in 1996. He has referred to as AHL video games from Newfoundland to British Columbia, and even in Davos, Switzerland, the place the Amerks twice participated within the storied Spengler Cup event. He has seen the workforce at its greatest, and he has been there by a few of its most troublesome seasons, together with a three-year break up from the Sabres.

Reuniting with Buffalo in 2011, Stevens believes, began the workforce’s transfer again to success. It’s a pure pairing for hockey followers in Western New York, in spite of everything, one which started in 1979.

“Terry Pegula and his spouse, Kim, bought the workforce, and it’s been regular uphill from there as they’ve performed an ideal job to show this again round. It’s getting higher and higher in Rochester 12 months after 12 months.”

The AHL is a unique league than it was 40 years in the past. However one fixed is Stevens, who has been honored twice by the league with the James H. Ellery Award for excellent media protection. So what’s subsequent?

Stevens admits that he’s undecided but.

However when he does name his ultimate sport, minute and seconds, he can step away realizing that the league the place he actually discovered his residence shall be in a very good place. He additionally will go away realizing how followers, gamers, coaches, administration and colleagues throughout hockey really feel about him.

“I admire a lot what all people has performed for me.”

On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally presently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a daily contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.