In the month of August and early September, as the news in the hockey world slows to a crawl, we will be taking a look at the most consequential deals in Buffalo Sabres history (using the Hockey News Archives as source material) and ranking the 15 best and the 15 worst deals in the club’s 54-year history.
This required the input of a trio of veteran media members (Dave Reichert, Randy Schultz, and Pete Weber), as well as three lifetime Sabre fans (Chuck Bender, Todd Riniolo, and Joe Schwartz).
8. June 10, 1970 – Sabres acquire goalie Roger Crozier from the Detroit Red Wings for Tom Webster.
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READ ABOUT OTHER SABRES TRADES
Best Trades In Sabres History – #9
Worst Trades In Sabres History – #9
The Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks had the unenviable task of piecing together a roster in their inaugural 1970 campaign with players left unprotected by the 12 existing NHL clubs; the six original clubs (Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, New York, and Toronto) and the six that entered the league in the 1967 expansion (California, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis) in the expansion and intra-league drafts.
The position that was to be the most challenging to get a quality player was in goal. In the 1967 expansion, every pick in the first two rounds were netminders, but in 1970, the pickings for the Sabres and Canucks were slim, as Buffalo’s selections of Gary Edwards and Rocky Farr played a total of 19 games for the Sabres.
With the first overall pick in the expansion draft, Sabres GM Punch Imlach selected forward Tom Webster from Boston. The 22-year-old was a big scorer for the Bruins minor-league club in Oklahoma City but had only played 11 NHL games. He then dealt Webster to the Detroit Red Wings for veteran goalie Roger Crozier.
The 28-year-old had played six seasons with the Wings, won the Calder Trophy and was the NHL First-Team All-Star in 1965. In 1966, he won the Conn Smythe Trophy for most valuable player for his performance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, in spite of Detroit losing to Montreal in six games. Crozier’s workload declined during his last three seasons with the Wings due to pancreatitis and other health issues and Detroit chose to move on from him.
Webster led the Wings in scoring with 67 points in 1970-71, but after struggling early the following season was traded to California for defenseman Ron Stackhouse and signed with the WHA’s New England Whalers in 1972.
Crozier was the backbone of the early Sabres clubs in spite of continuing health issues. In 1973, he posted a 23-13-7 record, 2.76 GAA, and led Buffalo to their first playoff appearance, and while only playing 23 games during the regular season, he played five times in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Sabres run to the Cup Final in 1975.
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