Buffalo’s first draft was in 1970 and they made the most out of their first choice by selecting Gilbert Perreault.
Buffalo’s drafting history has been pretty strong over the years. Years like 1970, 71, 75, 79, 82, 83, 88 and 01 all produced many full-time NHL players. Selecting a best year was the most challenging to this point but I had to go with 1982.
Phil Housley and Dave Andreychuk in the same draft is one heck of an accomplishment. Housley was one of the best offensive defensemen in USA hockey history and Andreychuk would finish his career with 640 career goals. On the strength of those two I would have to give this draft an edge over the 1983 draft.
Here is the 83 draft, did I make the right choice? You can make a case for this draft based on the number of players that would make the NHL. Though not offensively deep, Puppa and Barrasso would be starting goalies and Krupp was a steal in the 11th round.
The worst draft in Sabres history was a Titanic Failure! In 1973, Buffalo picked Morris Titanic with their first pick. Titanic would turn his decent junior career into 19 NHL games with no points or PIM. 19 NHL games and never once made a scoresheet, now that is an accomplishment! None of the other 7 Sabres picks would ever see NHL action thus making this draft quite bad. FYI, Rick Middleton was picked two spots AFTER Titanic so I would have to say Buffalo dropped the ball on this draft..
I would agree with you that '82 was better than '83, although they did pretty damn well both years!
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