Daniel Briere

Who is Next in Line for the Sabres Hall of Fame?

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Rob Ray became the 44th member of the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame on Friday night, a well deserved honor for one of the most beloved players in franchise history. Ray’s induction comes two years after Ryan Miller was inducted in conjunction with his jersey retirement, the first player to be inducted in nearly 10 years. 

It wasn’t long ago that the Sabres Hall of Fame was a stagnant, forgotten aspect of the franchise. After Miller and Ray’s inductions, it would appear that the Sabres Hall of Fame has been revived. 

The priority for the Sabres now should be to find a better way to share the Hall of Fame with the fan base. Currently, the only physical display is the wall of names and photos in the Sabres hallway. It’s a very nice exhibit but few fans ever get to see it in person. There should be a far more substantial celebration of the team’s Hall of Fame in the arena. I’ve long lobbied for the Sabres to build an interactive Hall of Fame and museum in the space behind the Sabres Store and my opinion hasn’t changed. There is a ton of room back there and I expect most of the office space to be cleared once the Canalside Gateway building opens. It is a perfect venue for a walk through attraction that fans can visit on game days or summer afternoons alike. I don’t need to re-hash that entire post, but devoting space to the Sabres Hall of Fame and other memorable aspects of team history seems like a slam dunk for the Sabres to pursue. 

As for the members of the Hall of Fame, it’s encouraging that the practice has returned. With only two new inductions in 10 years, it’s hard to say what sort of cadence the team will take up for new inductions. Will this be an annual event? Bi-annual? Or will the ceremonies come intermittently as the team sees fit to nominate and select someone for induction? 

My hope is for this to become a regular fixture on the Sabres calendar. There are enough worthy candidates to stretch on for 10 seasons with a new induction each year and even more if you care to get a little more creative with the standards for entry. Here is a list of the next most worthy candidates (in no particular order) for the Sabres Hall of Fame and a case for induction for each one. 

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Adams Adds Another Deadline Surprise

Chris OstranderLeave a comment

My how things can change in an instant. 

Most of the reporting surrounding Kevyn Adams and this year’s trade deadline was low key. The Sabres were expected to send out their pending unrestricted free agents, but it seemed any significant work would have to wait until the summer. 

Then Wednesday afternoon, Adams swapped Casey Mittelstadt for Bowen Byram and dropping the biggest bomb of the 2024 deadline season. 

Much of this post had been written at that point, with a hope that Adams would be able to pull off a big deal by Friday. The combination of cap troubles around the league and difficult fits seemed like that might be a longshot. even if the hope of a deadline surprise always lurks. Any deal Adams would have made outside of selling Zemgus Girgensons, Erik Johnson and Kyle Okposo would’ve been a surprise addition in some way. Though I’m not sure anyone was truly prepared for the magnitude of the trade he made with the Avalanche.  

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Twitter Homework: Which Group of Sabres Makes the Better Roster?

Chris OstranderLeave a comment

Mike Schopp asked a great question with the Twitter poll he sent out asking which group of jersey numbers would net the better all-time Sabres team.

It’s a great question which sparks some juicy debate. Do you go with goaltending (20-99) or the bulk of Buffalo’s retired numbers (0-19)? With the poll favoring 0-19, I have a feeling that the quick answer is representative of the first players you can think of within the two sets of digits he provided. It’s easy to come up with The French Connection, Pat LaFontaine, Mike Ramsey and Jack Eichel and go with 0-19 over Dominik Hasek and numbers 20-99.

But I felt with a little digging you’d find that you can form two very well-rounded teams from both sets of numbers. Teams which scope out to be closer than you may have thought initially. So I took it upon myself to dig into the Sabres’ number history and build what I feel are the two best teams from the groups of numbers provided in Schopp’s poll. Continue reading →

Briere is more of an option than you might think

Chris Ostrander4 Comments

Eight years, $52 million. That was the deal that lured Danny Briere away from Buffalo on that fateful July day that so many hockey fans in Buffalo continue to circle back to.

Six years after signing his massive deal, Briere is set to be bought out at the age of 35 after injuries limited a few seasons in Philly and a particularly ineffective 2013 campaign made him a prime buyout candidate. As he prepares to hit the free agent market in search of a deal well south of the $6.5 AAV he earned in Philly, does it make sense for Briere to come back to don a Sabres uniform?

It just might. Continue reading →