By Budd Bailey

Curtis Brown of the Sabres

Taken in Round 2 in 1994

The next pick: Jose Theodore of the Canadiens went on to win the Hart Trophy as the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2001-02. It should be noted that the Sabres didn’t really need a goaltender in the summer of 1994, thanks to Dominik Hasek.

Other picks in the round: Patrik Elias of the Devils might be the star of the round, even though he went next-to-last. Patrik scored 408 goals in 1,240 games. Rhett Warrener, who spent time as a Sabres, went first in that second round. Ryan Johnson (Florida), Mathieu Dandenault (Detroit) and Richard Park (Pittsburgh) all played more than 700 games.

The details: Curtis Brown broke in with Buffalo during the 1996-97 season. He stayed through 2004, ranking as a solid two-way forward who contributed 47 points to the 1998-99 team that reached the NHL finals. Curtis was dealt to San Jose in 2004, and also played in Chicago and in Switzerland.

Other 43s: Randy Wyrozub was taken in the fourth round of the Sabres’ first draft in 1970. He played in 100 games for Buffalo, and spent part of a season in the World Hockey Association. No Bills ever have been drafted at No. 43.

(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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