Buffalo Sabres History: Andreychuk Trade
On this day in Buffalo Sabres history: February 3, 1993.
Exactly twenty-three years ago today, then-Buffalo Sabres GM Gerry Meehan completed a five-piece trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The trade sent Dave Andreychuk, Daren Puppa and the Sabres’ first-round draft pick in 1993 to Toronto.
In exchange, the Buffalo Sabres picked up netminder Grant Fuhr and the Maple Leafs’ fifth-round pick in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft.
So – how did this trade work out?
Andreychuk was a former first-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres, drafted by the team over a decade prior, 16th overall in 1982.
Over the course of nearly 11 seasons with Buffalo, Andreychuk was scoring at over a point-per-game, with 771 points (348-423) in 763 regular season games with the Buffalo Sabres at the time of the trade.
He had 61 points (29-32) in 52 games with Buffalo that 1992-93 season prior to being traded.
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Following the trade, he went on to continue his high-scoring ways, putting up 38 points (25-13) in 31 games in the remainder of that regular season. He then spent the next two seasons, plus a good portion of a third, with the Leafs.
Overall, he appeared in 223 games with the Toronto, averaging just shy of a pont-per-game (219 in 223) in the regular season. Andreychuk then went on to careers with the Devils, Bruins, Avalanche, and Lightning, returning to Buffalo for a season in the midst of his NHL career.
The Buffalo Sabres also gave up Daren Puppa, a 1983 draft pick.
In parts of eight seasons with the team, Puppa had appeared in 215 regular-season games, with a record of 96-68-28.
He played eight games for the Leafs after the trade, going 6-2-0 in that time, before moving onto the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he’d finish out the rest of his career.
His final games with Tampa Bay came just a couple years prior to Andreychuk’s eventual arrival there.
With the acquired draft pick, the Leafs picked up Kenny Jonsson, a defenseman selected 12th overall.
He played 93 games for the Leafs over the course of two seasons, putting up 35 points in that time.
Jonsson went on to spend the next eight seasons with the New York Rangers before finishing his career overseas in Sweden.
The Sabres picked up Grant Fuhr in the trade, a goaltender who already had a solid NHL career built behind him upon his arrival in Buffalo.
He’d spent most of that time in Edmonton prior to roughly a season and a half in Toronto.
Fuhr went on to appear in 64 games with the Buffalo Sabres between 1993 and 1995, going 25-29-5 in that stretch.
He went on to play for Los Angeles, St. Louis and Calgary before hanging ’em up.
With their draft pick, the Buffalo Sabres picked up defenseman Kevin Popp (119th, 1995).
Popp never made it to the NHL, spending his time after being drafted in the WHL (Portland), ECHL (Birmingham), UHL (New Haven, Fort Wayne) and CHL (Indianapolis), with the last stats listed for the 2002-03 season.
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It’s always interesting to look back at trades of the past and see how they turned out, especially now, as we look ahead to the upcoming February trade deadline for the NHL and the Buffalo Sabres.