Breaking down every 50-plus single-season goal scorer in Sabres history
Throughout their history, the Buffalo Sabres fans have enjoyed watching quite a few players reach the 50-plus goal mark.
The Buffalo Sabres may have had some dark stretches in their time as an NHL franchise, but they also enjoyed numerous milestones since joining the league in 1970-71. One of those milestones includes a handful of 50-plus goal scorers, and, spoiler alert, none of them are named Gilbert Perreault.
That said, there are plenty of names that you will find familiar, four to be exact, and six different occasions in which a member of the Blue and Gold found twine 50 or more times in a season.
Danny Gare, 50/1975-76
The French Connection dominated in the 1970s, but the 1975-76 season belonged to Danny Gare. Just one year after he finished in third for the Calder Trophy and scored 31 goals, Gare went on a frenzy in 1975-76, scoring 50 times to go with a 16.5 shooting percentage.
Gare was also a major help to the Sabres that season, as he put up nine game-winning goals, 23 assists, and 73 total points in 79 games. He also finished with eight goals on the power play.
Rick Martin, 52/1973-74
Rick Martin will always be one of the best players to don a blue and gold uniform, and he helped drive that point home with a 52-goal season in 1973-74. Martin finished the year with 34 assists and 86 points, plus a 16.3 shooting percentage, all of which earned him First-Team All-Star honors.
The 1973-74 season was also a year when Martin finished with a career-high 44 even strength goals, and it foreshadowed what was to come over the next two seasons, as Martin’s goal-scoring frenzy was just getting started.
Rick Martin, 52/1974-75
Rick Martin came back in 1974-75 and again put 52 pucks into the net, tying his career-high in goals scored but also snagging 95 points in the process. Martin also notched a 17.5 shooting percentage, a milestone he hit on just one other occasion in 1979-80.
Once again, he was a First-Team All-Star, and Martin’s scoring frenzy was especially effective on the power play, where he found the net 21 times. Had he scored one more goal the following season in 1975-76, we would be writing a third section up on Martin, but still, 49 goals as an encore after scoring 104 times in the previous two campaigns is a good mark.
Pat LaFontaine, 53/1992/93
Pat LaFontaine scored 50-plus goals in a season twice in his career, as he put 54 into the back of the net in 1989-90 as a member of the New York Islanders. Fast-forward to 1992-93, LaFontaine had since joined the Sabres, where he found twine 53 times in 84 games.
That mark made him a Second-Teamer as an NHL All-Star, and LaFontaine’s additional 95 assists gave him a career-high 148 points. He notched a 17.3 shooting percentage, which by Pat LaFontaine standards, was a rather modest number, seven game-winning goals, and 20 power play goals, the second-best mark of his career.
Danny Gare, 56/1979-80
They often call Gilbert Perreault the best player in franchise history, but there are times when the best player doesn’t hold all the ultra-remarkable records. When it came to scoring in the 1970s and into 1980, Danny Gare held that title in two seasons when he scored 50-plus goals, the second of which occurred in the 1979-80 season.
Gare scored 56 times, with 33 assists, and 89 points in a season that saw him take fifth place for the Hart Trophy. He logged a 20.7 shooting percentage that season, 17 power play goals, and besides leading the league in goals, he also paced the NHL with 11 game-winners.
Alexander Mogilny, 76/1992-93
The best single-season scorer in Sabres history, Alexander Mogilny finished the season with 76 goals in 77 games, giving him 0.987 per contest. As with Pat LaFontaine, Mogilny also secured a career-high in points with 127, with 51 assists and a 21.1 shooting percentage, both of which were his best marks with the Sabres.
Mogilny also joined LaFontaine as a Second-Team All-Star, and he ended up leading the league in game-winners with 11. Mogilny would only score 50-plus goals one more time in his career, which came in 1995-96 as a member of the Vancouver Canucks..
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