In 50-plus years of existence you might think the Sabres would have a litany of waiver acquisitions sprinkled throughout their history. As it turns out, the Sabres have made a tidy 18 claims in their history.
That figure does need an asterisk due to the existence of the NHL’s Waiver Draft, which ran from 1977 to 2003. The Sabres selected nine players in various Waiver Drafts over the years, so depending on how you would categorize those acquisitions, you may feel the club has made 27 waiver claims. You may also wish to consider the Waiver Draft separate from the traditional waiver wire.
The Waiver Draft is a curious entity itself. A relic of the 70s-era NHL, it was introduced when it was determined the Intra-League Draft was no longer viable. As detailed here, the Waiver Draft was meant to carry on the function of the Intra-League Draft; providing teams an avenue to acquire players who could improve the rosters of the league’s worst teams. Each team would have the ability to protect a list of players and the rest of the league could select from each club’s unprotected list. In theory, the league’s worst teams would be able to supplement their roster with quality, but not star-level, talent from the more successful teams around the league. For example, the Sabres selected Tim Horton from the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1972 Intra-League Draft.
For a short time there was also an Inter-League Draft, but we don’t need to go down that road today.
The various machinations of a growing league are interesting to examine. The post-expansion NHL was ripe with player movement. Trading players for cash wasn’t unusual and events like the Intra-League or Waiver Draft seem so foreign to today’s highly sanitized offseason. Even considering Buffalo’s selections in the Waiver Draft, the team doesn’t have a lengthy list of acquisitions. Of their true waiver claims, 10 of the 18 have come in the previous 10 years. That is thanks in large part to the rebuilding years of the tank. In fact, if you set aside the Waiver Draft, the Sabres went 12 seasons without making a single waiver claim.
Yet, there are some interesting figures on the team’s list of claims. Bob Baun, claimed on November 3, 1970, wasn’t a Sabre for 24 hours before he was traded to the Blues for Larry Keenan and Jean-Guy Talbot. The Blues would turn around and trade Baun to the Maple Leafs nine days later. Axel Jonsson-Fjallby was in Buffalo for a week before being claimed back by the Capitals while the waiver wire brought development camp hero Drake Caggiula back to Buffalo. Of all the claims made by Buffalo, this group stands out among the rest.
Bob Sweeney
Sweeney had been a fairly effective player for the Bruins in the late 80s. He had a pair of 20-goal seasons and sniffed the 50-point plateau three times. Those numbers aren’t too special in the NHL of the 1980s but they’re nothing to sneeze at. He found his form after the Sabres claimed him in October of 1992, scoring 21 goals for the 92-93 Sabres, good for fourth on the team. His 47 points were one off his career high and were the best among forwards not named LaFontaine, Mogilny, Hawerchuk or Andreychuk. However, his biggest contribution came in the spring.
Facing his former club, Sweeney slid home the game winning goal at 11:03 of overtime in game one of the Adams Division Semi-Finals. That game one win sparked one of the most memorable series wins in franchise history. The Sabres would win games two and three by scores of 4-0 and 4-3, respectively, putting them in position for a sweep at home. The Sabres would go on to win game four at 4:48 of overtime on a goal that you may be familiar with.
Peteris Skudra
The answer to perhaps the most unique Sabres trivia question, Skudra was claimed off waivers from the Bruins on October 6, 2000. The Sabres would lose him back to Boston on November 14. Just long enough for him to be included in the official team photo for 2000-01 and to receive his Sabres pads.
What’s unique about Skudra is that his Sabres tenure lasted only 27 seconds. He provided Dominik Hasek a brief reprieve in a 2-2 tie against the Anaheim Mighty Ducks on October 20, 2000. He didn’t face a shot and no Sabre in franchise history has seen less time on ice than Skudra. Dalton Smith (1:26) and Sean McMorrow (1:27) are the next closest in total time on ice. Skudra’s final stat line for the Sabres: 1 game played, 27 seconds on ice, 0.00 GAA.
Matt Ellis
Matt Ellis was claimed off waivers from the Los Angeles Kings on October 1, 2008 and made his Sabres debut on October 15. He played just over seven minutes in a 3-1 win over the New York Rangers. He became a folk hero, of sorts, in the first few weeks of his time in Buffalo. At least among those of us writing the Sabres game notes as the team’s record spiked with him in the lineup. The Sabres were 4-1-2 in October and wound up with a 15-7-4 record with him in the lineup through January. “The Ellis Effect” led to a 23-16-6 record when he was in the lineup that first season. His seven goals in 2009 were a career high and he even accounted for a 60% GF% according to Natural Stat Trick.
Ellis wound up in 72 games in the following season and earned a reputation as a hard-working piece of the roster in his seven seasons in Buffalo. He’s since stuck around the region and organization, working his way to the NHL bench from a development coaching job. His longevity with the club has left an impressive mark, particularly off the ice.
Derek Grant
Grant is a Puckdoku player’s dream, having spent time in seven NHL cities. Though the start of his career, which includes 40 games in Buffalo, was inauspicious, to say the least. A fourth round pick of the Senators, Grant quickly rounded into an effective AHL player capable of a cup of coffee at the NHL level. By the time he signed as a free agent for the Sabres, he had only played 40 NHL games in three seasons but had back-to-back 20-goal years in the AHL. He never saw Rochester and played 35 games for the Sabres before being claimed off waivers by Nashville. After a six-game hiatus with the Predators, the Sabres claimed Grant back on February 6, 2017. He played five more games for the Sabres and moved on to Anaheim the following season.
What’s interesting is that Grant’s time in Buffalo would be the final year of his goalless drought in the NHL. Across four NHL seasons and 86 games with four different teams, Grant had never scored a goal. That includes his 40 games in Buffalo. In total, he waited 92 games before scoring his first NHL goal. And as a gift for his wait, the hockey gods blessed him with a pair against Montreal on October 20, 2017. The team the Ducks played the night before? The Buffalo Sabres.
Tyson Jost
Jost’s story with the Sabres is still being written. He was acquired in November of 2022 and got into 59 games last season. He was a breath of fresh air in the bottom six and carved out a respectable 22 points (7+15) in that time. However, he seemed as if he may be the odd man out in the numbers game this offseason and his future in Buffalo was in question. But Kevyn Adams opted to bring him back for 2023-24, though what his role will be remains in question.
Sort of in the way Matt Ellis found a home in Buffalo’s bottom six, Jost has done similarly. The scoring touch that made him a first round pick has taken a back seat to a harder working style, but his ability to play center and provide more balance to the team’s forward group was sorely needed in 22-23. We’ll see what this year offers and if he can carve out an even greater impact on the list of Buffalo’s waiver claims.
Sabres Waiver Claims
6/9/70 Joe Daley
11/2/70 Steve Atkinson, Paul Andrea
11/3/70 Bob Baun
2/8/82 Paul Harrison
10/9/92 Bob Sweeney
10/6/00 Peter Skudra
10/1/08 Matt Ellis
11/27/13 Matt D’Agostini
1/3/14 Zenon Konopka
3/5/14 Cory Conacher
2/6/17 Derek Grant
9/27/17 Jordan Nolan
10/2/18 Remi Elie
4/9/21 Drake Caggiula
10/4/21 Axel Jonsson-Fjallby
10/16/21 Christian Wolanin
11/19/22 Tyson Jost
Waiver Draft Selections
Yvon Lambert – 1981 Waiver draft
Mark Renauld – 1983 Waiver Draft
Clark Gillies and Wilf Paiement – 1986 Waiver Draft
Kevin Maguire, Ed Hospodar – 1987 Waiver draft
Steve Smith – 1988 waiver Draft
Brent Hughes, Rob Conn – 1996 Waiver Draft
Two in the Box 
