Buffalo Sabres History: Who Wore It, Number 76
Buffalo Sabres fans who have been visiting Sabre Noise for some time may be familiar with our “Who Wore It” series. We started this several years ago, highlighting one player to have worn each jersey number with the Buffalo Sabres. This series doesn’t designate who is the “best” to have worn that number, but simply allows fans to learn a little more about the team’s history and the players in it.
We last discussed jersey number 74, which was worn by just one player in Buffalo Sabres history: Jay McKee.
Today, we skip on to jersey number 76, a number which has been worn by two players in Buffalo Sabres history: Andrew Peters and Wayne Primeau.
Primeau, a Scarborough native, played for the Sabres between 1994 and 2000. He was drafted by Buffalo 17th overall in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft.
At the time, Primeau was playing with the OHL’s Owen Sound Platers. The center went back to the OHL for two seasons after the draft, with Owen Sound and the Oshawa Generals, but made his NHL debut on May 3, 1995 against the New Jersey Devils. Despite it being his NHL debut, he managed to score the game-winning goal as the Sabres defeated the Devils 5-4.
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Primeau would split the 1995-96 season between Owen Sound and Oshawa in the OHL, but he’d also appear in two games with the Buffalo Sabres and eight games with the Rochester Americans.
He slowly, but surely, made his way up the ladder, eventually making it to the NHL full-time in the 1997-1998 season.
After six years with the Sabres organization, Primeau was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 9, 2000. He headed to the Lightning with Brian Holzinger, Cory Sarich and a 2000 3rd-round pick (Alexander Kharitonov) in exchange for Chris Gratton and a 2001 pick that turned into Derek Roy.
Less than a year later, he was on the move again – traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for former Buffalo Sabres tough guy Matthew Barnaby.
After parts of three seasons in Pittsburgh, it was off to San Jose in exchange for Matt Bradley.
Less than two years later, on November 30, 2005, Primeau was part of the trade that sent Joe Thornton from Boston to San Jose. Primeau went with Brad Stuart and Marco Sturm to the Boston BRuins, where he spent the rest of that season and more than half of the next.
But once again, it was soon time to move on, this time to Calgary in exchange for Andrew Ference and Chuck Kobasew.
The last trade of Primeau’s career came on July 27, 2009, when he was shipped to the Toronto Maple Leafs along with a 2011 2nd-rounder (Brandon Saad) in exchange for Anton Stralman, Colin Stuart and a 2012 7th-rounder. He appeared in 59 games for the Leafs that next season before hanging up his skates after he was released from Leafs’ training camp in 2010.
All in all, Primeau’s NHL career saw him appear in 774 regular season games and another 90 playoff games. He registered 76 goals and 139 assists in that time – but the most spectacular number comes in the penalty minutes category: 789 PIMs in 774 regular season games, and another 42 PIMs in 90 postseason matches.
One fun moment of Primeau’s career was when he fought his brother, Keith, in a regular season game with the Buffalo Sabres:
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