Buffalo Sabres Top 5 Most Penalized Players In History

5. Matthew Barnaby

Matthew Barnaby played right wing for the Buffalo Sabres between 1992 and 1999. He was originally drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in 1992, with the 83rd overall selection.

Over the course of his NHL career with the Buffalo Sabres, Barnaby appeared in 317 games. In that time, he managed to wrack up 1,248 penalty minutes – fifth most of any player in Buffalo Sabres history.

For the folks at home, that amounts to roughly 3.94 penalty minutes per game over the course of his seven (some partial) seasons with the Buffalo Sabres.

During his time with the Buffalo Sabres organization, Barnaby also managed to rack up 427 penalty minutes with the Rochester Americans – over the course of just 98 games throughout two seasons. That’s an average of 4.36 penalty minutes per game at the AHL level.

After his time in Buffalo, Barnaby would go on to play for Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, the Rangers, Avalanche, Blackhawks and Stars before hanging up the skates in 2007.

His NHL career as a whole found him rack up a total of 2,732 penalty minutes in 896 games played, averaging 3.05 penalty minutes per game. His career-high single-season record for penalty minutes came in the 1995-96 season, when he was served with 335 penalty minutes in 73 games. This would end up being third-most for most penalty minutes in a season by a player in the Sabres franchise.

Oh – and a fun, more recent comparison? Patrick Kaleta, who has appeared in 360 games with the Buffalo Sabres, has always been known as an “enforcer” but in comparison to Barnaby’s 1,248 penalty minutes, has accrued only 542.