The Buffalo Sabres inducted Rob Ray into their Hall of Fame Friday night, with the former NHL enforcer showing rare emotion during his acceptance speech.
Ray, who played 14 of his 16 NHL seasons in Buffalo, nearly broke down at the sight of his parents and a standing ovation before beginning his remarks.
“OK, you got to stop or I’m going to cry,” said Ray, whose career inspired an NHL rule change and generated 3,207 penalty minutes.
“I came to this town, I didn’t need glasses, I was in shape, I had hair, I left it all here for you guys,” Ray said to open his speech.
Ray, 56, joined the Sabres as a fifth-round draft pick in 1988. He played in Buffalo from 1990 to 2002 before finishing his career in Ottawa. He becomes the 44th member of the team’s Hall of Fame.
His 3,207 penalty minutes stand as a Sabres record and rank sixth in NHL history. Ray recorded 41 goals and 91 points in 900 career games.
The Ontario native scored on his first NHL shift, beating Tom Barrasso with a slap shot in a 4-2 win at Pittsburgh on Oct. 21, 1989. He added three playoff goals, including the game-winner in Game 4 of the 1999 Eastern Conference finals against Toronto.
Ray’s fighting style, which included wearing tear-away jerseys, led the NHL to implement a rule requiring game misconducts for players fighting without jerseys.
“He played the game with fire. He wasn’t just a tough guy, but he was the toughest,” former teammate Brad May said. “There’s no better feeling knowing Rob Ray has your back.”
The ceremony featured several former teammates and Sabres co-owner Kim Pegula, making her first arena appearance since experiencing cardiac arrest in June 2022.
Ray acknowledged his coaches and paid tribute to late broadcaster Rick Jeanneret, saying “I miss you, buddy. We all do.” Jeanneret, who died in August 2023, gave Ray his broadcasting start after retirement.
“They changed the rules because of you. The streaker, the fighting streaker,” longtime rival Tie Domi said in a video message. “I’m proud of you man. Our friendship goes way beyond hockey.”
Ray reflected on the NHL’s evolution away from enforcers through rule changes over the past two decades.
“I think that sometimes what we lose in our game is it’s all about winning and losing and it’s all about stats, you forget it’s an entertainment business,” said Ray, who played on the late-90s Sabres teams known as the hardest working in hockey.
“We didn’t win a lot of games back then. But we played hard and people respected it. They liked it,” Ray said. “They knew that we might not win, but you know what, ‘I may see a fight tonight. I might see two.’ And that was kind of the draw that lured them.”
