The Sabres, like any NHL franchise, choose plenty of prospects during the annual NHL Draft. Some work out and some don’t. Let’s look at five of the team’s best.
1. Gilbert Perreault
The first Buffalo Sabre the franchise selected was the No. 1 hockey prospect during the team’s inaugural season in 1970. In that year’s Expansion Draft, it was the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks. The 1970 Draft featured a large spinning carnival wheel with the lucky winner getting each player.
The Canucks had numbers 1-9 and the Sabres 10-18. When NHL Commissioner Clarence Campbell spun the wheel, the double digits came up 1 over 1, or 11. Since not everybody saw it at first, the Canucks thought it was No. 1, but Campbell quickly corrected that mistake, and Gilbert Perreault came to Buffalo.
That fortunate spin was a lucky break for the new franchise. Perreault soon established himself as a fast, smooth and prolific goal-scoring center. Within a few seasons, the Sabres paired him with fellow French Canadian wingers Rene Robert and Rick Martin. The trio became known as the “French Connection” after a popular gritty Seventies crime movie. The three were so beloved, Sabres’ owner Terry Pegula commissioned a statue of them that stands at KeyBank Center’s entrance in downtown Buffalo.
Perreault was the group’s keystone and played all 17 NHL seasons with the Sabres. One of the top-scoring forwards of all time, No. 11 (what else?) enjoyed a career high 512 goals, 814 assists and 1,326 points in 1,191 games. He also had the honor, along with fellow French Connection linemates, of competing in the Sabres’ first of two Stanley Cup Final series to date. While Perreault never hoisted a Cup, his talent and skill endeared him to Sabres’ fans and hockey lovers in general.
2. Ryan Miller
Flashy forwards usually grab all the hockey headlines, but good goalies are hard to come by and almost worth their weight in gold. In 1999, the Sabres drafted college goaltender Ryan Miller in the NHL’s Draft fifth round as 138th overall. Miller spent two seasons with the AHL Rochester Amerks before coming to Buffalo for good.
Miller’s next decade of NHL hockey was suiting up for the Sabres, helping the team win game after game with his solid netminding ability. No. 30 didn’t have one season in Buffalo with a SV% below .900 or a GAA above .281. Opponents knew they’d need to exhaust all their scoring skills when Milller was in net. Buffalo’s starting goaltender so frustrated the rival Toronto Maple Leafs the city’s sports press dubbed him “Leaf Killer: Ryan Miller” for the way he shut down Toronto’s forwards and stymied their scoring chances.
Eventually, the Blue and Gold traded Miller to the St. Louis Blues in 2014 and he spent another eight seasons blocking shots, first for the Blues, then the Canucks and finally closed out his career in Anaheim. Miller’s goaltending ability didn’t falter, leading many Sabres’ fans to believe GM Tim Murray was too quick to ship him out of town. Regardless, Miller remains one of Buffalo’s best goalies and all-time draft picks.
3. Rasmus Dahlin
During the 2018 World Juniors tournament in Buffalo, a young Swedish defenseman captivated Sabres’ talent scouts and everyone else watching. A few months later, the team selected him as the NHL Draft’s first overall pick. Dahlin didn’t have a smooth start in Buffalo and it took a few seasons for him to find his game. However, he gradually developed into the player that first stole all the attention back in 2018.
One thing that hasn’t changed for Dahlin is his work ethic and level of discipline. Competing on a roster often filled with athletes who play strong stretches and then seem to slack off, No. 26 plays all 60 minutes of hockey, every matchup and every shift. He’s a physical defenseman, not enjoying less than 100 hits and almost as many blocks or sometimes more over his last four campaigns. He’s also an offensive-minded D-man, with an 83-277-360 scoring record.
Dahlin’s skills, ability and dedication caused the Sabres to name him team captain last year, after Kyle Okposo left to spend the postseason with the Florida Panthers and then retired. If Buffalo had a few more Rasmus Dahlins on the ice, it’s hard to see how the team wouldn’t have a chance at the Cup.
4. Martin Biron
Long before he was a regular fixture with announcer Brian Duff during period intermissions on MSG, Marty Biron was Buffalo’s backup goalie alongside Ryan Miller. The team drafted Biron 16th overall in 1995 and he made his debut as an emergency call up with all three other team goalies injured on Dec. 26 that year. Biron became the team’s starting netminder when Dominik Hasek left for Detroit in 2001 and held that position until the 2005 lockout.
No. 43 had a consistent above .900 SV% and 2.56 or below GAA during those four seasons. After the lockout, Biron gradually faded into the background as Miller became the franchise’s dominant goaltending presence. Biron didn’t like playing second fiddle to Miller and requested a trade so he’d get more playing time. The Sabres finally granted it on Feb. 27, 2007, getting a second-round draft pick from the Philadelphia Flyers in return.
Biron spent three years in Philadelphia and then went to the New York City area, first joining the Islanders for one campaign and then spending four seasons with the New York Rangers (not all full thanks to another ridiculous Gary Bettman-led lockout) before retiring in 2014. The NHL ranks Martin Biron Buffalo’s fourth best goalie ever, behind only Miller, Hasek and Don Edwards. His 134 wins, 25 ties and 18 shootout victories are accomplishments he and Sabres’ fans can be proud of.
5. Sam Reinhart
Former Sabres’ forward Sam Reinhart is one of many draft prospects the team’s managers unfortunately wasted in Buffalo. The Sabres drafted Reinhart second overall in 2014 and quickly signed him to a three-year deal, The following year, the Blue and Gold drafted Jack Eichel and acquired center Ryan O’Reilly, putting Reinhart on the third offensive line.
Reinhart proved himself just as talented as those two centers, scoring a consistent 20+ goals and double digits assists per year in almost all his seven seasons as a Sabre. It wasn’t enough to endear him to GM Kevyn Adams, who traded him to the Florida Panthers on July 24, 2021 for goaltending prospect Devon Levi and a 2022 second-round pick.
Reinhart’s numbers only improved in Florida and his goals and assists rose to 30+ per season. On June 24, 2024, Reinhart scored a goal to make it 2-1 against the Edmonton Oilers during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final and helped the Cats hoist the Cup that night.
Sabres’ supporters are happy for Reinhart but no doubt wish he could have had a better career in Buffalo. No. 23 became No. 13 in Florida but that number gave him good luck, instead of the mismanagement he endured with the Blue and Gold, One of the team’s best overall draft picks is a lesson in how incompetence can keep a sports team from reaching its full potential and how talent used wisely pays dividends.