By Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page Columnist

Andrej Sekera of the Sabres

Taken in Round 3 in 2004

Other picks in the round: Sekera wound up second in games played in the NHL that round to Alexander Edler, taken by Vancouver at No. 91. Johan Franzen, No. 97 to the Red Wings, led the round in goals with 187.

The details: Sekera needed a year and a half in Rochester, but came up for good to the Sabres in 2007-08. He stayed as a regular in Buffalo through 2012-13. Then Andrej was dealt to Carolina for Jamie McBain and a draft choice. Sekera continues to play in the NHL as of this writing for Dallas, having gone through the Oilers and Kings as well.

Other 71s: John Schmeding was an offensive lineman taken by the Bills from Boston College in 1980. He never did play a game in the NFL, but went on to become a high school football coach in New Jersey. Greg Neeld is remembered as a junior hockey player who lost an eye in an on-ice accident in 1973. He wore a face shield – the first player to do so – and was drafted by the Sabres in 1975. Greg wasn’t allowed to play in the NHL, but he did suit up in the World Hockey Association and in the minors.

(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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