Remembering Gilbert Perrault

[Buffalo Rick]

Nov 7th 1986 Gilbert Perrault, the greatest Sabre of all time, scores his last two goals.  512 for his carreer and many many more assists, Perrault was amazing to watch and even the great Waybe Gretsky grew up watching him.  Number 11 could skate like the wind and he could stick handle as good as any I have seen along with Orr.   The art of stickhandling seems to have gone away a bit.  You see more passing than guys trying to win those one on one battles by keeping control of the puck.  Speed is necessary to do this of course and Perrault could just explode and keep control of the puck.  Like Ty Cobb once said he would rather run the bases than hit a home run, Perrault was an unselfish player who would rather get a great assist and let Martin or Robert slam it home than himself.  If he had been more selfish I believed he would have scored more goals.  But he is very high on the all time point list.  The greatest Sabre to ever put on the Buffalo uniform.  

[flyercanuck]

By far the greatest Sabre ever. And a class act to boot.

[jammer2]

@Hockey Junkie  Perreault (correct spelling btw) was a great, great player. He has slipped a bit in the all time points leaders over the last few years, but still sits at a very respectable #32.

 

 http://statshockey.homestead.com/alltimepoints.html

 

 What a silky smooth stride he had...just one of those pure natural players who oozed skill in every faucet of the game. I was surprised to see Pierre Turgeon sitting with one more point, at #31...Gilbert was WAY better than Turgeon, but I guess Pierre was the best scoring Sabre of all time, although Gilbert had a better ppg than Pierre.

[yave1964]

Perreault spent his entire 17 year career with the Sabres and was well over a point a game player. Along with Martin and Robert formed the famed 'French Connection' line, averaged over a point a game in the post season as well. First pick of the 1970 draft class easy no brainer. Classy player. In my mind he is always Mr. Sabre

[jammer2]

  As far as classy players go, I have always put Gilbert Perreault in the lofty company of the great Jean Ratelle, which is a HUGE compliment, cause Jean was just a wonderful human being. 

[Buffalo Rick]

@Hockey Junkie  Perreault (correct spelling btw) was a great, great player. He has slipped a bit in the all time points leaders over the last few years, but still sits at a very respectable #32.

 

 http://statshockey.homestead.com/alltimepoints.html

 

 What a silky smooth stride he had...just one of those pure natural players who oozed skill in every faucet of the game. I was surprised to see Pierre Turgeon sitting with one more point, at #31...Gilbert was WAY better than Turgeon, but I guess Pierre was the best scoring Sabre of all time, although Gilbert had a better ppg than Pierre.

I am very sure he played longer and had more games. Just look, do you see Bobby Orr on that list?  So are all those guys better than Orr?  Hell NO.   Raw stats are misleading at times.  Orr, Bossy and Martin are three guys who were incredible and had their carrers cut short by injuries.  Orr's being knee problems.   Turgeion is not even close to the player Perreault was.

[jammer2]

@Hockey Junkie  I pointed out Gilbert had a better ppg than Pierre, and said he was WAY better, I believe I made the point you chose to reiterate.