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.