No. 85: February 26, 2008 – The Sabres trade Brian Campbell and a seventh-round choice in 2008 (Drew Daniels) to San Jose for Steve Bernier and a first-round pick in 2008 (Tyler Ennis).

The window seemed to be closing for the Sabres in the 2007-08 season. Chris Drury and Daniel Briere left during the summer of ’07 as free agent, and that left Buffalo as something less than a Cup contender. Brian Campbell could see all of this, of course, and was scheduled to become a free agent in the summer of 2008. And the two sides couldn’t agree on a new contract.

Rather than lose him for nothing, as the team had done the previous year with its two biggest stars, general manager Darcy Regier opted to move Campbell around the trading deadline. Campbell landed in San Jose for Steve Bernier and a high draft pick. He helped the Sharks’ defense, but is best remembered in San Jose for taking a penalty in the fourth overtime that led to a Dallas goal that eliminated the Sharks from the postseason. Campbell then jumped to Chicago, where he signed a huge contract.

Bernier was traded to Vancouver the following summer, while Ennis was a regular for the Sabres for a few years.

(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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