Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - Gerry Meehan was an original Buffalo Sabres and assisted on the first goal in team history which was scored by Jim Watson and came in Pittsburgh on Oct. 10, 1970. Meehan passed away Friday at the age of 79.
Meehan took a lot of big swings while running the team which brought in Pat LaFontaine, Dominik Hasek and Dale Hawerchuk to Buffalo, but his biggest swing could've cost him his life. In 1988, Meehan took a chance and drafted Alex Mogilny in the fifth round of the NHL Draft knowing that Russian players had to defect to play in the NHL.
Mogilny was playing at the World Championship in Sweden in 1989 and got word to Meehan that the Russian speedster wanted to come to the NHL. The Sabres GM and Don Luce went to Sweden knowing they'd be pursued and likely killed by the KGB if they were caught. Several back alleys, trains and cars later, Mogilny, Meehan and Luce made it safely back to Buffalo and the Sabres had a future Hockey Hall of Famer. Mogilny played 990 NHL games and scored 473 goals. In Buffalo he had one season where he scored 76 goals and in six seasons he netted 211 goals in 381 games.
Buffalo took Meehan in the expansion draft from the Philadelphia Flyers where he had only played 12 games. Meehan had one 30-goal season when he netted 31 for the Sabres in 1972-73. He only played three games for Buffalo in the 1974-75 season when he was traded along with Mike Robitaille to the Vancouver Canucks for Jocelyn Guevremont and Bryan McSheffrey.
Meehan played 306 games for Buffalo scoring 94 goals and 114 assists for 208 points. He had one assists in six playoff games for the Sabres. Meehan also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Atlanta Flames and Washington Capitals. Before retiring in 1978-79 with 670 NHL games scoring 180 goals and 243 assists for 423 points he played two games in the WHA for the Cincinnati Stingers.
After playing, Meehan decided to become a lawyer, but the pull to hockey was too much. In 1984 Meehan was hired by Scotty Bowman to be assistant general manager and early in the 1986-87 season, he took over as GM for the fired Bowman. Meehan was general manager until 1993 when he was named executive vice president of sports operations to take an actively role in legal and business work done by the team.
Floyd Smith was the Sabres first captain, but he only played one season, so Meehan took over wearing the C starting in 1971.
Meehan is the only player in Sabres history to be the team's captain and general manager
Meehan is the only player in Sabres history to be the team's captain and general manager
