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Sabres trade Brian Camp­bell to Sharks for right wing Steve Bernier

“Don’t boo me when I come back,” the defense­man said this after­noon shortly after being traded to the San Jose Sharks.

It’s tough being a small-​market sports fan, espe­cially when the sport in ques­tion is hockey. For all the talk of parity in the NHL, it’s clear that there are two classes of teams – those will­ing to spend money to acquire and retain top talent, and the Buf­falo Sabres.

The Sabres suf­fered losing their two top cen­ter­men to free agency last off-​season, after post­ing the best record in the NHL and their second East­ern Con­fer­ence Cham­pi­onship loss in a row. One can argue about front office mis­takes in not sign­ing Briere and Drury, but in the end, it was their turn to cash in on a big con­tract, and Buf­falo was unwill­ing or could not afford to pay. (Let us not forget also that the Sabres were up against the salary cap all of last season.)

And now we have a home-​grown NHL super­star in Brian Camp­bell – two-​time All Star, spin-o-rama skater, and open-​ice hitter of R.J. Umberger – now due his big pay day at the end of this season, as he becomes eli­gi­ble for free agency. What are the Sabres to do?

Well, the only move is to trade him. The Sabres could not risk losing him for noth­ing, and Camp­bell and his agent seemed luke warm about sign­ing some­thing before the trade dead­line. I cer­tainly can’t blame either party.

But, I can feel sad. Being a fan of a small-​market team is tough, and I’d be lying if I weren’t a little jeal­ous that the Rangers or Ducks can just go buy whomever they want every year. In Buf­falo, we have to make our own stars.

After the jump, some high­lights from Soupy’s career in Buf­falo, includ­ing some of his hilar­i­ously hor­ri­ble local tele­vi­sion commercials.

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