Who Is the Sabres All-Time best player to wear #51 - 53?

The Buffalo Sabres are in their 56th season and have a storied history. The club has 15 players who have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and many others who deserve recognition. Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at players in Sabres history by their jersey number, ranking the top two players to wear that particular number. Since less players have worn higher numbers in the club’s history, we will look at a range of numbers.

The top two who wore #51 through 53 in team history are: Brian Campbell and Jeff Skinner.

Campbell was a late-round pick of the Sabres in 1997 who played four years in the OHL and most of three seasons with the AHL Rochester before winning a full-time job in Buffalo in 2002. The slick-skating blueliner thrived in the post-lockout NHL, posting three straight 40+ point seasons, including the two years the Sabres reached the Eastern Conference Final before being traded to San Jose in 2008. Skinner was acquired from Carolina in 2018 for a pair of draft picks and thrived as a linemate with Jack Eichel, scoring 40 goals and earning an eight-year contract extension. After being derailed by the horrific coaching of Ralph Krueger, the Toronto native posted a pair of 30+ goal seasons, but after his goal total dropped to 24 in 2024, the Sabres bought him out of the final three years of his contract. 

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