Congratulations, Jason Pominville.
You are now a member of the NHL 700 Point Club.
Pominville, 35, scored a goal and added two assists in Buffalo's 5-1 victory over the LA Kings on Saturday. At Friday's practice in El Segundo, Phil Housley made a radical roster move to kickstart his team's dormant offense. Housley promoted Pominville and Jeff Skinner to Jack Eichel's wings on the top line. In so doing, Conor Sheary and Samson Reinhart were juxtaposed to the third line.
The result paid immediate dividends for the Sabres. Pominville found the fountain of youth while skating with Eichel and Skinner. Though he's lost a half a step over the years, Pominville is still blessed with the hands of a neurosurgeon. He has a lethal shot and can fisish from in close and from long distance.
Against the Kings, the Skinner-Eichel-Pominville trio created 9 points, 11 shots on goal, 13 shot attempts and was +11 at the end of the game. Skinner finished the game with the hat trick.
Thanks, Sabres.com
Drafted in 2001, Pominville scored his first NHL goal on November 27, 2005 against the Washington Capitals to help Buffalo to a 3-2 win. Pominville finished his rookie season with 18 goals and 30 points in 57 games.
In the 2006 Stanley Cup playoffs, Pominville played in each of Buffalo's 18 games and led all rookies with 10 points as Buffalo got within a win of the Stanley Cup Final. Pominville's short-handed, series-clinching overtime goal against the Ottawa Senators in Game 5 of the second round provided one of the great moments in Sabres history.
A 34-goal, 68-point season in 2006-07 began a seven-season run in which the forward never finished lower than fourth in scoring on the Sabres. During his 27-goal, 80-point 2007-08 campaign, Pominville assumed Buffalo's rotating captaincy for the first time and was named a finalist for the Lady Byng Trophy.
On October 6, 2011, Pominville was named the 16th captain of the Sabres. He responded with the second 30-goal season of his career and his first appearance in an NHL All-Star Game. But with the Sabres in rebuilding mode, Buffalo sent Pominville to the Wild at the NHL Trade Deadline. Pominville was traded to Minnesota by the Sabres with Buffalo's 4th round pick (later traded to Edmonton -- Edmonton selected William Lagesson) in 2014 NHL Draft for Matt Hackett, Johan Larsson, Minnesota's 1st round pick (Nikita Zadorov) in 2013 NHL Draft and Minnesota's 2nd round pick (Vaclav Karabacek) in 2014 NHL Draft, April 3, 2013.
In Minnesota, Pominville scored four goals and nine points in 10 games to help the Wild qualify for the playoffs for the first time in five seasons. Having had great on-ice chemistry with Zach Parise, Pominville signed a five-year extension with the Wild before the 2013-14 season, and he and Parise would become one of the top scoring tandems in franchise history.
Pominville went back to the future when he was traded to the Sabres by the Wild with Marco Scandella and Minnesota's 4th round pick in 2018 NHL Draft for Tyler Ennis, Marcus Foligno and Buffalo's 3rd round pick in 2018 NHL Draft, June 30, 2017.
Join the Discussion:
»