What do Rick Martin and Jimmy Vesey have in common?

A lot more than meets the eye, at first look at least.

While both are left-shooting wingers, the former is a part of Sabres history as part of the French Connection (alongside Gilbert Perreault and Rene Robert), and the latter has a chance to become future Sabres lore on a yet-to-be-named line (alongside Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart), if Vesey chooses to sign with Buffalo that is.

Chris Ostrander (of Two in the Box fame) has produced this spectacular graphic which details the Rick Martin trade tree, and all the players that have come and gone through Buffalo since that time.

Going through the tree is like a walk down Sabres memory lane, and when you look at the number of players who can be linked back to that original trade, the ‘Butterfly Effect’ of every single move an NHL General Manager makes really comes into perspective.

Click here or on the image below to see a blown-up version of this trade tree.

Chris Ostrander

And as Chris mentions, with Vesey, Dmitry Kulikov and Rasmus Asplund all tied into this, there’s more to come for sure.