CANCER JOURNEY PROVIDED VALUABLE LESSONS FOR AMERKS' NEW VOICE
Rochester's new 25-year-old broadcaster has fought for everything in his life, beginning with defeating cancer at an early age
Nov 13, 2026
Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Griffin Della Penna needed a minute or two to take it all in.
For one, he is a 25-year-old play-by-play broadcaster who has already reached the American Hockey League as the new voice of the Rochester Americans.
And two, he was taking over the microphone from a legend in Don Stevens, who retired last spring.
A native of Batavia, N.Y., Della Penna grew up a fan of the Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bills, and this whole broadcasting idea came to him young. On Oct. 2, he did his job, calling the Amerks’ 2026-27 season opener. The team did its job, too, with a 3-1 win over the defending Calder Cup champion Toronto Marlies.
And plenty of other people had to do their jobs well for Della Penna to get where he is today. People like his parents, and the teams of doctors and other medical professionals who helped him 22 years ago.
The AHL is again partnering with the NHL and NHLPA Hockey Fights Cancer™ powered by the V Foundation for Cancer Research presented by AstraZeneca campaign. The effort started in 1998 and aims to “drive support for lifesaving cancer research and inspire action through increased participation in recommended screenings.” The Amerks are one of 22 teams around the AHL to host a Hockey Fights Cancer night this season; theirs is scheduled for Feb. 12.
Flash back to Nov. 27, 2004. Griffin’s joints started to hurt. Soon the pain intensified to the point that he could not stand up. Alarmed, his parents, Matthew and Ellen, took him to the local emergency room.
“Quickly the doctors realized that there was something a lot more serious going on,” he recalls.
Serious enough that they put him in an ambulance for a trip to Buffalo Children’s Hospital.
The diagnosis was acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. According to the Mayo Clinic, it’s a disease that spreads rapidly, and is the most common type of cancer for children.
Within 24 hours, Griffin entered a trial that will continue for the rest of his life. Those treatments required three- to four-day hospital stays. Regular trips into Buffalo for treatment, including spinal taps and chemotherapy.
Dexamethasone, a steroid used in treatment, is not in a typical preschooler’s vocabulary, but it was for Della Penna.
“When I say that word, I can still feel the taste in the back of my throat for how bad it tasted.”
But that potent concoction worked. On June 1, 2007, the family got the news that Griffin was cancer-free.
Since then, advances in treatments and care have drastically improved the survival rates for childhood and adolescent cancers, according to one Journal of the National Cancer Institute study. The trial that Griffin entered has become part of today’s treatment regimen.
“Even from the time that I had my diagnosis, science has made incredible breakthroughs,” he said.
That’s the research component, Clinically, people like Dr. Martin Brecher, chief of pediatrics at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, serve as another weapon. Brecher, who passed away in September, was a pediatric hematologist oncologist who helped to shepherd Della Penna through treatment. The two built a close relationship.
And for a fight like this one, those personal contributions come from people outside of medicine as well.
Growing up, Della Penna became close with Amerks and Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller, whose charity work included the Courage of Carly Fund. Carly Colland-Cottone was an 8-year-old diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer, medulloblastoma, in 1999. Cancer had already taken both of her parents, and she lost her own battle in 2002.
And there was Michael Napoleone, a fellow Batavia native fighting Burkitt lymphoma and leukemia, a fast-growing blood cancer. Della Penna and Napoleone connected as two kids trying to find their way through cancer. He remembers meeting Miller and Sabres forward Jason Pominville, the holiday parties, and connecting his young peers going through some of the same medical challenges that he faced.
“Not only did that make me feel more normal as a kid going through that, it was great for my family and me to get our minds off of all of the negative things that were happening during that stage in our lives,” Della Penna said. “I also think that’s why I have such a deep connection to the Sabres and now the Amerks as well, just for the impact that they’ve had on me away from the ice when my family kind of needed it most.”
Those connections became essential as his health became his family’s challenge as well. His mother had returned to college; his father had a local power-washing and painting business to pay the bills. They traded off making the trips to the hospital.
“It’s not just you going through it, really,” Della Penna said. “It’s all of you going through it. The fact that they were able to shield what they were going through financially, emotionally, all of that, from my sister and me… They’re my heroes. For them to step up and make things comfortable and try to give us the best and most ideal childhood, I use it as motivation to be able to give back to them at least a fraction of what they’ve been able to do for me.”
Griffin’s parents sat in the Blue Cross Arena stands on opening night with his broadcast call playing through their earphones. His older sister, Allison, is a child-life specialist, a career that involves age-appropriate education, and emotional support to help children and their families coping with medical issues.
It’s a tight family, one made tighter by that diagnosis, and also one that spurred his career choice.
“My father was flipping through the channels, stopped on ESPN, and I saw SportsCenter for the first time,” Griffin recounted. “And I was just amazed that you could wear a cool suit, sit at a desk, and talk about sports.”
He also excelled in competition as a three-sport high-school athlete who went on to play Division I baseball as a walk-on at Canisius College. But after his sophomore year, he concluded that it was time to put baseball to the side and go “full-steam” into his broadcasting ambitions. An internship with Pegula Sports and Entertainment, then the Sabres’ holding company, followed. Then came on-air broadcasting work for ESPN+, the ACC Network and at WPRI-TV in Providence, R.I., that included covering the New England Patriots. He joined the Amerks as a rinkside reporter for their local TV broadcasts, and was also an in-arena host for the Sabres.
But in 2024, Griffin started to develop pain in his back and legs. Eventually MRIs revealed the cause: he had a tumor in his spinal cord. He returned to Buffalo for an eight-hour surgery to remove the tumor, which proved to be non-cancerous. But he required six months of physical therapy to re-learn daily tasks, like walking and going up a set of stairs.
“Now as a 23-year-old at that point in time, I’ve worked to reach this lifelong goal and felt like it was all just going to get ripped away from me again,” he recalled.
But it wasn’t. He landed the Rochester broadcasting job in July, and as he settles into the role, he remembers Michael Napoleone, his childhood friend who passed away in 2007. It’s a bond that remains, as Griffin’s mother serves on the board of directors for the Michael Napoleone Memorial Foundation. And Griffin still tries to fit visits to Roswell Park or Golisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester.
Cancer is not an experience that anyone wants. But Della Penna says that going through it at such a young age spurs him now to help children today.
“The lessons learned along the way were incredibly valuable.”
Griffin is an upbeat person who wants people going through cancer to stay positive. There’s hope. Remember those research and treatment breakthroughs. Researchers and clinicians work daily so that more are on the way. Many who work in oncology cite a personal connection that inspired them to enter the field, and Della Penna understands that motivation.
“We’re going to honor their lives.”