Buffalo Sabres Alumni Hockey Team

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Buffalo Sabres Alumni Hockey Team
City: Buffalo, New York
League: Independent

The Buffalo Sabres Alumni Hockey Team is an independent hockey (and occasionally basketball) team located in Buffalo, New York. Its roster consists entirely of retired National Hockey League players, mostly former members of the Buffalo Sabres. The team is operated by the Buffalo Sabres Alumni Association.

The team plays teams assembled by various local organizations around Western New York primarily as charity fundraisers. Its uniform is identical to the classic "blue and gold" Sabres home (white) uniform from 1970 to 1996.

The team considers HSBC Arena to be its home arena but rarely plays there.

One of its more recent and most notable games took place on March 29, 2007, when the team played a home game against the Buffalo Police Department as a fundraiser for police officer Patty Parete, who suffered spinal injury from a gunshot wound. The game drew over 7,000 fans as the Sabres Alumni won, 9–3. [1]

The Alumni Team played at HSBC Arena as part of the pre-game events for the AMP NHL Winter Classic held at Ralph Wilson Stadium on January 1, 2008.

[edit] Roster

Full time roster:

Several other players have been known to play on the Sabres Alumni team on occasion, depending on the importance of the event. Such players, whose participation varies widely, include:

Notable non-Sabres to have played for the team include:

  • Craig Charron, long time Rochester American. Rochester is the long-time American Hockey League affiliate for the Sabres.
  • Seymour H. Knox IV, son of former Sabres owner Seymour H. Knox III and nephew of Northrup R. Knox, the only non-professional hockey player to have ever played for the team, playing goaltender on at least one occasion.
  • Marcel Dionne, Hockey Hall of Fame centreman. Dionne resides in Buffalo but never played there in his career (he spent most of his career with the Los Angeles Kings). He has thus far played in two Sabres Alumni games-- the first in 1997 (a fundraiser for Ted Darling)[2] as an opponent and again in 2007 (the Parete fundraiser) as a member of the team [3] thus making him the only non-Sabre with NHL experience to play for the team. Dionne at one time was affiliated with the Sabres' then-ECHL affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina.

[edit] External links