Best Trades In Buffalo Sabres History - #15
The Sabres acquired Alexei Zhitnik from the Los Angeles Kings in a six-player deal that included goalie Grant Fuhr
Best Trades In Buffalo Sabres History - #15In 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 Sabres fans (Chuck Bender, Todd Riniolo, Joe Schwartz).
15. February 14, 1995 - Alexei Zhitnik, Charlie Huddy, and Robb Stauber from the LA Kings for Grant Fuhr, Philippe Boucher and Denis Tsygurov
The Buffalo Sabres under GM and head coach John Muckler had the advantage of an emerging superstar between the pipes in Dominik Hasek and an aging netminder in Grant Fuhr, whom his predecessor Gerry Meehan had acquired in 1993.
Hasek was an unknown commodity when the Sabres traded for Fuhr in February, 1993, but he emerged the following season with a microscopic 1.95 GAA and 30-20-6 record, leaving the four-time Cup winner as the backup.
THN’s Mike Brophy reported that Muckler was looking for offensive help after the injury to star center Pat Lafontaine and that he had promised the former Oilers netminder he would oblige him with a trade. On Valentine’s Day 1995, early in the 48-game lockout-shortened season, the Sabres dealt Fuhr, 1991 first-rounder Philippe Boucher, and big Russian blueliner Denis Tsygurov to Los Angeles for 23-year-old Alexei Zhitnik, veteran Charlie Huddy, goalie Robb Stauber, and a 1995 fifth round pick.
Fuhr played only 14 games with the Kings behind starter Kelly Hrudey and left Los Angeles as a free agent for St. Louis, where he found a second wind and played four more seasons before closing out his Hall-of-Fame career with Calgary in 2000.
Boucher played parts of six seasons in Southern California but enjoyed the most success of his 17-year career in Dallas. Tsygurov played a grand total of 39 games in Los Angeles before returning to Europe to play the remaining five years of his pro career.
Stauber replaced Fuhr as Hasek’s backup for the remainder of the 1995 season and finished of the rest of his career in the AHL, IHL, and other lower-level leagues. Huddy was nearing the end of his career, and played 84 games over three seasons in Buffalo, with a brief stop in St. Louis before retiring in 1997.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSblqD-r1sQ[/embed]
Zhitnik never reached the same offensive totals he posted in 1994(52 points) with the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Rob Blake, and Luc Robitaille in LA, but the hard-hitting Russian anchored the Sabres defense for 712 games over nine seasons (1995 – 2004), including a run to the Eastern Conference Final in 1998 and Stanley Cup Final in 1999.
Following the 2004-05 lockout season, Zhitnik played three more years with the NY Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, and Atlanta Thrashers before returning to Russia in 2008 and finishing with two seasons in the KHL.
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