Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
A bus rolled down Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania Saturday night, taking the Rochester Americans from Wilkes-Barre to Hershey for the team’s regular season finale.
Don Stevens he was on that bus, as he served 40 seasons with one of the AHL’s most storied franchises. That late-night ride feels all too familiar to Stevens, who is wrapping up a 58-year broadcasting career.
With some scheduling lulls, Stevens’ final regular season game came at the Giant Center against the Bears; nearly 200 of the 3,300-plus AHL games he called were Rochester vs. Hershey.
And while the Americans spent the last few weeks of the season scratching for a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs, for Stevens it was like an old television show. This Is Your Life. Stevens, 77, announced last summer that the 2025-26 season would be his last behind the Rochester microphone, sparking a season-long celebration of a career that took him to places like Salt Lake City, San Diego, Phoenix and Seattle before being hired by Rochester.
In the past few weeks alone, old friends and colleagues have come to Rochester to help Stevens out. Others sent greetings from afar. The Amerks held Don Stevens Night on April 4, and a dozen family members came to help celebrate. A bobblehead of Don Stevens has been donated to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Broadcasting partner of 20 years, former defender of Amerks John Bednarskisurprised and returned to the booth. He was respected in Buffalo, respected in Cleveland and Syracuse. He threw out the first pitch at a Rochester Red Wings baseball game. He got the key to the city from the Mayor Malik Evansand the Don Stevens Day proclamation from the Monroe County sheriff Adam Bello.
“Their mission in life, I’m sure of this,” Stevens said of his coworkers at the Amerks front office, “is to make me speechless.”
Travel, especially at age 58, wears him down. Stevens has reduced his road schedule this season, with broadcast coordinator Amerks Andrew Mossbrooks stepping in to carry another burden. He also made it clear that he wants to leave his performance level still high.
“I know I make a lot more mistakes than I used to,” Stevens explained, “and I don’t see as well as I used to.”
He says he put a few years’ thought into his decision to retire. And as the end drew closer, he had no small thoughts.
“I think, if anything, my thoughts are focused on the reasons why it’s time,” he said.
But no one really cares about criticizing his work, even if his high standards kept him from doing just that until the last weeks or months of his career.
One broadcast booth that doesn’t require bus rides is Rochester’s, the team named after him in 2023. Rochester is now home to the Wainwright, Alta. He had moved 14 times in 18 years before being hired as a general manager George Bergantz in the summer of 1986. He expected his stand with the Americans to last a few years before it was time to move on again. But she and her little family made the Flower City their home.
“I remember that Seymour Knox IV he picked me up from the airport the day I arrived,” Stevens recounted, “and he said, ‘You’re going to love Rochester because the fans are special.’
“And he was absolutely right about that.”
In Stevens’ first season, the Americans won the Calder Cup. They made seven finals appearances in 14 years, winning it all again in 1996. He has called AHL games from Newfoundland to British Columbia, and even in Davos, Switzerland, where the Americans have twice participated in the Spengler Cup. He has seen the team at its best, and has been there through some of its toughest seasons, including a three-year stint with the Sabres.
Meeting with Buffalo in 2011, Stevens believes, started the team’s move back to success. A natural pairing for hockey fans in Western New York, after all, that started in 1979.
“Terry Pegula and his wife, Kimbought the team, and it’s been going up ever since then as they’ve done a good job of getting this back. It gets better in Rochester every year.”
The AHL is a different league than it was 40 years ago. But one constant is Stevens, who has twice been honored by the league with the James H. Ellery Award for media coverage. So what’s next?
Stevens admits he’s still not sure.
But when he calls his last game, minute by minute, he can go out knowing that the league where he found his home will be in a good place. He will leave knowing how the fans, players, coaches, managers and teammates throughout hockey feel about him.
“I really appreciate what everyone has done for me.”
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
