In the month of August, 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).
11. March 7, 1989 – Buffalo acquires defenseman Grant Ledyard, goaltender Clint Malarchuk and a 1991 sixth-round pick (Brian Holzinger) from the Washington Capitals for defenseman Calle Johanson and a 1989 second-round pick (Byron Dafoe).
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The Sabres were in a battle for playoff positioning in 1989 in the Adams Division with the Boston Bruins, who went to the Stanley Cup Final the previous year and had eliminated Buffalo in the first round in six games.
The year was turbulent for the Blue and Gold, as team captain Lindy Ruff resigned the captaincy and was traded to the NY Rangers, former Vezina and Calder Trophy winner Tom Barrasso was dealt in November to Pittsburgh for Doug Bodger and Darrin Shannon and his replacement Daren Puppa suffered a broken arm in January and was lost for the season.
Before the trade deadline, GM Gerry Meehan needed to bolster his goaltending with Jacques Cloutier making most of the starts in the absence of Puppa and pulled the trigger on a deal with Washington to bring goalie Clint Malarchuk to Buffalo along with veteran defenseman Grant Ledyard for blueliner Calle Johansson and a second-round pick.
The 27-year-old Malarchuk had been the primary starter for the Capitals, but they also had Pete Peeters and Don Beaupre in goal. Ledyard, 28, had been with three NHL clubs (NY Rangers, Los Angeles, Washington) since debuting in 1984, while Johansson was the Sabres 1985 first-round pick and got off to a promising start to his career, scoring 42 points as a rookie in 1988.
Just two weeks after the trade, Malarchuk was nearly killed as the skate from Blues forward Steve Tuttle cut the goalie’s jugular vein. He miraculously returned to play for one game in the playoffs a few weeks later, as the Sabres again fell to the Bruins in the first round in five games.
Malarchuk split duties with Puppa for another three seasons before finishing his career in the minors and retiring in 1997.
Ledyard continued his journeyman ways after four-plus seasons with Buffalo, with stints in Dallas, Vancouver, Boston, Ottawa, and Tampa before retiring in 2004.
Johansson became a mainstay on the Capitals blueline for 15 seasons, scoring 474 points and playing nearly 1000 games, before being traded to Toronto and ending his career in 2004.
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