By Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page Columnist

Richie Dunn – Signed by the Sabres in 1977 and 1985

Who says nice guys finish last? Richie Dunn, a man who spent his life with a smile on his face, was such a good guy that the Sabres signed him as a free agent twice.

The Boston native came out of Canadian junior hockey to join the Sabres in 1977. He spent his first two seasons mostly in the minors, but then earned a regular job on the 1979-80 Buffalo team that was one of the best in franchise history. Dunn remained a regular on the Sabres’ blue line through 1982, when he and Don Edwards were traded to Calgary. Later he went to Hartford, scoring a remarkable end-to-end goal against the Sabres that would have made Paul Coffey proud.

Yet Dunn wasn’t done with the Sabres quite yet. He joined the team again as a depth player in 1985. Dunn mostly played in Rochester to work with the team’s young players, but he came up to Buffalo a few times when the Sabres needed an experience body on defense because of injuries. Dunn helped the Amerks win the Calder Cup in 1987, and is in the Americans’ Hall of Fame. Here’s the induction video:

For a quick look at No. 81 to 100, click here.

(Follow Budd on Twitter @WDX2BB)

Budd Bailey

Budd Bailey has been involved in almost every aspect of the local sports scene for the last 40 years. He worked for WEBR Radio, the Buffalo Sabres' public relations department and The Buffalo News during that time. In that time he covered virtually every aspect of the area's sports world, from high schools to the Bills and Sabres and everything in between. Along the way, Budd served as a play-by-play announcer for the Bisons, an analyst for the Stallions, and a talk-show host. He won the National Lacrosse League's Tom Borrelli Award as the media personality of the year in 2011, and was a finalist for that same award in 2017. Budd's seventh and eighth books, one on the Transcontinental Railroad and the other about Ichiro Suzuki, are scheduled to be released in the fall.

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