By Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page Columnist

No. 93: December 2, 1981 – The Sabres trade Bob Sauve to Detroit for a conditional first-round draft choice (Sauve was returned to the Sabres after the 1981-82 season).

This was the other trade of the day for the Sabres with Detroit, even though it was announced together. The teams also completed a multi-player swap that day involving Jim Schoenfeld, Danny Gare and Mike Foligno. This one was unique.

Bob Sauve had divided time in goal with Don Edwards since 1979 for the Sabres, and the lowly Red Wings needed help in that area. So the deal was made, but with a catch. If Detroit didn’t want Sauve after watching him for most of a season, it could return him and get the No. 1 draft pick back.

That’s exactly what happened. Sauve went 11-25-4 with a 4.19 goals-against average, and he was a Sabre again the next season. Sauve became the No. 1 goalie for Buffalo in 1982-83, and is fondly remembered for his back-to-back playoff shutouts in Montreal in the spring of 1983.

(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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