Sabres fans upset as beloved franchise greats left off NHL’s list

NHL.com released its full Quarter-Century team on Monday, and Sabres fans were displeased to not see a franchise great on that list. The Quarter-Century Team was selected via the NHL Quarter-Century Team Fan Vote presented by SAP from February 12th to April 1st.

The fan vote followed the reveal of all 32 NHL clubs' first and second teams, which were announced earlier this year. The six players named to each team's First Team were eligible for selection in the Fan Vote.

The Sabres' first and second teams consisted of these names.

First Team

F Daniel Brière
F Jason Pominville
F Thomas Vanek
D Brian Campbell
D Rasmus Dahlin
G Ryan Miller

Second Team

F Chris Drury
F Derek Roy
F Jack Eichel
D Jay McKee
D Tyler Myers
G Dominik Hašek

I think the way they went about creating the list only highlighted certain players. Now I realize that there are only so many spots per team, but the NHL wanted to highlight players from all teams on the final list. Yet 1/3 of the teams in the league didn’t have a representative on the final list, if not more.

Now, with only 25 players, you want to take the best of the best. However, I think they should have done a 25-man first, second, and third team to highlight all franchises and players that were selected.

For example, Patrick Roy made this list as one of the top goaltenders. Now, before I catch any hate, Roy is the best goalie of all time, in my opinion. However, he only played three years of his career in this quarter century. Now he played well in those years, and helped the Avs to a Stanley Cup, but he beat out the likes of these players.

Jonathan Quick, Tukka Rask, Corey Crawford, Sergei Bobrovsky, and former Sabres goalie Ryan Miller. All of these goalies played their entire careers between 2000 and 2025. These are the kind of goalies that should be represented on the team, in my opinion.

As for other former Sabres players who didn’t make the list, such as Daniel Briere, Dominik Hasek, and Jack Eichel, if there were more than one team, these guys would certainly be on one of those other teams as they would all become eligible.

The NHL also limited how they selected players, as it was players who made their debut between 2000-2010, and 2010-2020, with only a select few being chosen from each era.

When these kinds of teams are made, there are always people who will argue that people got snubbed. For example, the NHL 100 greatest player list and the NBA 75th anniversary team. The NHL was unable to capture the great moments of all its franchises, and it left a lot of fans, including Sabres fans, unhappy with the result.