Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
The bus rumbled down Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania late Saturday night, taking the Rochester Americans from Wilkes-Barre to Hershey for the team’s regular-season finale.
Don Stevens was on that bus, just like he has been for 40 seasons with one of the AHL’s most storied franchises. Those late-night rides feel very familiar for Stevens, who is winding down a 58-year broadcasting career.
Through some scheduling serendipity, Stevens’ final regular-season game came at Giant Center against the Bears; nearly 200 of the 3,300-plus AHL games he has called have been Rochester vs. Hershey.
And while the Amerks spent the last several weeks of the season scratching to get into the Calder Cup Playoffs, for Stevens it was something akin to the old television show This Is Your Life. Stevens, 77, announced last summer that the 2025-26 season would be his final one behind the Rochester microphone, sparking a season-long celebration of a work that took him to stops such as Salt Lake City, San Diego, Phoenix and Seattle before he was hired in Rochester.
The last few weeks alone, old friends and colleagues have made their way to Rochester to help see Stevens off. Others sent long-distance greetings. The Amerks held Don Stevens Night on April 4, with a dozen family members flown in to help celebrate. A Don Stevens bobblehead was donated to the Hockey Hall of Fame. His broadcast partner of 20 years, former Amerks defenseman John Bednarski, made a surprise return to the booth. He was feted in Buffalo, honored 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 Mayor Malik Evans, and a Don Stevens Day proclamation from Monroe County executive Adam Bello.
“Their goal in life, I’m convinced of this,” Stevens said of his co-workers in the Amerks front office, “is to make me speechless.”
The travel, especially with 58 years of it, is wearing on him. Stevens cut back on his road schedule this season, with Amerks broadcast coordinator Andrew Mossbrooks stepping in to carry some of the load. He has also been very public about wanting to leave while his performance level is still high.
“I know I’m making a lot more mistakes than I used to,” Stevens explained, “and I don’t see as well as I used to.”
He says that he put a couple of years of thought into reaching his decision to step aside. And even as the end has come closer and closer, he has not had any second thoughts.
“I think, if anything, my thoughts have been cemented on the reasons why it’s time,” he said.
But no one really cares about critiquing his work, even if his own high standards have kept him doing exactly that until the final weeks or months of his career.
One broadcast booth that requires no bus rides is Rochester’s, which the team named after him in 2023. Rochester has become home for the product of Wainwright, Alta. He had moved 14 times in 18 years before being hired by general manager George Bergantz in the summer of 1986. He expected his stop with the Amerks to last only a couple of years before it was time to move on again. But he and his young family made the Flower City home.
“I remember that Seymour Knox IV picked me up at the airport the day I arrived,” Stevens recounted, “and he said, ‘You’re going to love Rochester because the fans are so special.’
“And he was absolutely correct on that.”
In Stevens’ first season, the Amerks 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 Amerks twice participated in the storied Spengler Cup tournament. He has seen the team at its best, and he has been there through some of its most difficult seasons, including a three-year split from the Sabres.
Reuniting with Buffalo in 2011, Stevens believes, started the team’s move back to success. It’s a natural pairing for hockey fans in Western New York, after all, one that began in 1979.
“Terry Pegula and his wife, Kim, purchased the team, and it’s been steady uphill from there as they’ve done a great job to turn this back around. It’s getting better and better in Rochester year after year.”
The AHL is a different league than it was 40 years ago. But one constant is Stevens, who has been honored twice by the league with the James H. Ellery Award for outstanding media coverage. So what’s next?
Stevens admits that he is not sure yet.
But when he does call his final game, minute and seconds, he can step away knowing that the league where he really found his home will be in a good place. He also will leave knowing how fans, players, coaches, management and colleagues across hockey feel about him.
“I appreciate so much what everybody has done for me.”
