By Budd Bailey
Jason Dawe of the Sabres
Taken in Round 2 in 1991
The next pick: Center Jeff Nelson (Capitals) was a classic tweener – a very good minor league player who couldn’t stick at the next level. Jeff finished with three goals in 52 NHL games.
Other picks in that round: San Jose got the best player with the first pick of the round at No. 23. Ray Whitney played 1,330 games and scored 1,064 points. Zigmund Palffy (Islanders) averaged almost a goal every two games in his career. Steve Staios played 1,0001 NHL games. Jassen Cullimore (Vancouver), Sandis Ozolinsh (San Jose) and Jozef Stumpel also stayed in the NHL for a long time.
The details: Dawe first arrived in Buffalo in the 1993-94 season, and had his best year in his first time around as a regular in 1995-96 (25 goals, 25 assists). Jason was traded to the Islanders in March, 1998. The right winger never scored 10 goals in an NHL season after that.
Other 36s: Benoit Hogue (1985) had three-plus seasons in Buffalo before he went to the Islanders in the Pat LaFontaine trade. The forward had 75 points with the Islanders twice. He won a Cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999. J.T. Compher never played a game for the Sabres after he was drafted in 2013. He went to Colorado in the Ryan O’Reilly deal, he’s been a good fit as a two-way center ever since. Ken Breitenbach (1975) spent parts of three seasons in Buffalo in the late 1970s.
He got away: The Bills drafted quarterback Norm Snead in the fifth round in 1961. However, Washington in the NFL took him second overall, and he signed with that franchise. Snead played 16 years and made four Pro Bowls. Snead might have changed some Bills’ history involving Jack Kemp had he opted to play for the Bills.
(Follow Budd on Twitter @WDX2BB)
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