Martin Biron

Martin Biron

Biron during the 2010-11 NHL season as a member of the Rangers.
Born (1977-08-15) August 15, 1977
Lac-Saint-Charles, QC, CAN
Height 6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Weight 170 lb (77 kg; 12 st 2 lb)
Position Goaltender
Caught Left
Played for Buffalo Sabres
Philadelphia Flyers
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
National team  Canada
NHL Draft 16th overall, 1995
Buffalo Sabres
Playing career 1995–2013

Martin Gaston Biron (born August 15, 1977) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender.

Drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the first round (16th overall) of the 1995 NHL Entry Draft, he spent the first half of his 16-year National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Sabres, later having stints with the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders and New York Rangers.

He now works as an analyst on the TSN panel along with James Duthie, Aaron Ward and Bob McKenzie, is an occasional studio commentator for Sabres and Islanders broadcasts on MSG, and is the director of goaltending at the Academy of Hockey at the Buffalo HarborCenter. Biron is currently working as a studio analyst on NHL Network.

Playing career

Martin Biron in goal for Buffalo during the 2005-06 season

Biron started his hockey career on the Beauport Harfangs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). He made his NHL debut with the Buffalo Sabres on December 26, 1995.[1] An emergency call-up with the Sabres' top three goaltenders all injured, Biron became the fourth-youngest goaltender to start a game in NHL history, surrendering four first-period goals in a 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. [2] After posting a 5.04 goals against average (GAA) with no wins and two losses during his fill-in stint, he was sent back to the QMJHL to develop further. After the 2000–01 season, he was a consistent goaltender for the Sabres as his play in the crease improved drastically.

Biron, along with Rob Ray and Dominik Hašek, was one of the three Sabres against whom, in three consecutive years, the NHL made a specific rule. After NHL statisticians discovered a bug in their new stat-tracking software, the "Biron rule" restricted jersey numbers to whole numbers between 1 and 99 (later limited to numbers between 1 and 98 after the league-wide retirement of number 99 for Wayne Gretzky). Biron was the only NHL player affected, as only he wore "00" at the time. (Goaltender John Davidson also wore 00 during his playing career, without rebuke, at various points between 1973 and 1983.) Upon his return to the NHL three seasons later, Biron switched to number 43, and wore that number until the end of his career.

Biron became the Sabres' starting goaltender after Hašek's departure from Buffalo in 2001 and held the position until the 2004–05 NHL lockout. Biron has always been a fan favorite in Buffalo and although he no longer plays there, he currently resides in the city and after his retirement has a position as director of goaltending at HarborCenter, which is owned and operated by the Sabres organization.[3]

Biron with the Flyers during the 2008–09 NHL season.

After losing the number one goaltending job to emerging youngster Ryan Miller, Biron requested a trade from the Sabres on June 26, 2006, in an effort to receive more playing time. Finally, on February 27, 2007, the Sabres traded Biron to the Philadelphia Flyers for a second-round draft pick.[4]

On March 27, 2007, Biron signed a two-year, $7 million contract extension with the Flyers to be the starting goaltender in Philadelphia. After appearing in 62 games and recording 30 wins in the 2007–08 season, he led the Flyers to the Eastern Conference Finals, losing in five games to the Eastern Conference champion Pittsburgh Penguins. He appeared in 55 games for the Flyers in the 2008–09 season, winning 29 and helping the Flyers to the fifth-overall seed in the Eastern Conference.

Biron with the Islanders

On July 1, 2009, Biron entered free agency. He was soon left in a difficult position after the Flyers signed goaltenders Ray Emery and Brian Boucher, while other teams quickly filled up their goaltending roster needs. Biron soon signed a one-year, $1.4 million contract with the New York Islanders on July 22, 2009,[5] joining goaltenders Dwayne Roloson and Rick DiPietro. In 29 appearances, Biron recorded nine wins to go with 14 losses and four overtime losses, with a 3.27 goals against average and .896 save percentage. The Islanders did not qualify for the post-season.

On July 1, 2010, Biron signed a two-year, $1.75 million deal with the New York Rangers, where he prepared to back-up Swedish starter Henrik Lundqvist. Biron is one of four players in NHL history to skate for all three teams based in the state of New York. The others were Mike Donnelly and former teammates Jason Dawe and Pat LaFontaine. Biron will have played almost his entire career in the state of New York, except for a brief 2 1⁄2-year stint with the Philadelphia Flyers.

On February 28, 2011, Biron fractured his collarbone during practice and was forced to miss the remainder of the 2010–11 season. While Biron played the shortest number of games (17) since his second NHL season in 1998–99, he posted career highs in save percentage (.923) and goals against average (2.13).[6] On June 29, 2012 Biron re-signed with the Rangers in a one-way contract worth $2.6 million over two years, working out to an average of $1.3 million per year.[7]

On October 14, 2013, the Rangers placed Biron on waivers after a poor start to the season,[8] and the following day, he was assigned to play with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL).[9] Biron announced his retirement via social media on October 20, 2013, choosing retirement over playing in the minor leagues.[10] He ended his career with a 230–191–25–27 record, 2.62 goals against average and a .910 save percentage.[11]

Family

His younger brother Mathieu played 250 games in the NHL as a journeyman.

Awards

Career statistics

Regular season

Season Team League GP W L T OTL MIN GA SO GAA SV%
1994–95 Beauport Harfangs QMJHL 56 29 16 9 — 3193 132 3 2.48 —
1995–96 Beauport Harfangs QMJHL 55 29 17 7 — 3207 150 1 2.84 .897
1995–96 Buffalo Sabres NHL 3 0 2 0 — 119 10 0 5.04 .844
1996–97 Beauport Harfangs QMJHL 18 6 10 1 — 935 62 1 3.98 .895
1996–97 Hull Olympiques QMJHL 16 11 4 1 — 972 43 2 2.65 .915
1997–98 South Carolina Stingrays ECHL 2 0 1 1 — 86 3 0 2.09 .929
1997–98 Rochester Americans AHL 41 14 18 6 — 2312 113 5 2.93 .907
1998–99 Buffalo Sabres NHL 6 1 2 1 — 281 10 0 2.14 .917
1998–99 Rochester Americans AHL 52 36 13 3 — 3129 108 6 2.07 .930
1999–2000 Rochester Americans AHL 6 6 0 0 — 344 12 1 2.09 .924
1999–2000 Buffalo Sabres NHL 41 19 18 2 — 2229 90 5 2.42 .909
2000–01 Rochester Americans AHL 4 3 1 0 — 239 4 1 1.00 .955
2000–01 Buffalo Sabres NHL 18 7 7 1 — 918 39 2 2.55 .909
2001–02 Buffalo Sabres NHL 72 31 28 10 — 4085 151 4 2.22 .915
2002–03 Buffalo Sabres NHL 54 17 28 6 — 3170 135 4 2.56 .908
2003–04 Buffalo Sabres NHL 52 26 18 5 — 2972 125 2 2.52 .913
2005–06 Buffalo Sabres NHL 35 21 8 — 3 1934 93 1 2.88 .905
2006–07 Buffalo Sabres NHL 19 12 4 — 1 1066 54 0 3.04 .899
2006–07 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 16 6 8 — 2 935 47 0 3.02 .908
2007–08 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 62 30 20 — 9 3539 153 5 2.59 .918
2008–09 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 55 29 19 — 5 3177 146 2 2.75 .915
2009–10 New York Islanders NHL 29 9 14 — 4 1634 89 1 3.27 .896
2009–10 Bridgeport Sound Tigers AHL 2 1 1 — 0 124 7 0 3.39 .903
2010–11 New York Rangers NHL 17 8 6 — 0 928 33 0 2.13 .923
2011–12 New York Rangers NHL 21 12 6 — 2 1220 50 2 2.46 .904
2012–13 New York Rangers NHL 6 2 2 — 1 336 13 0 2.32 .917
2013–14 New York Rangers NHL 2 0 1 — 0 71 9 0 7.61 .763
NHL totals 508 230 191 25 27 28,612 1247 28 2.62 .910

Playoffs

Season Team League GP W L MIN GA SO GAA SV%
1994–95 Beauport Harfangs QMJHL 16 8 7 903 37 4 2.46 —
1995–96 Beauport Harfangs QMJHL 19 12 7 1135 64 0 3.38 —
1996–97 Hull Olympiques QMJHL 6 3 1 326 19 0 3.50 —
1997–98 Rochester Americans AHL 4 1 3 239 16 0 4.02 .885
1998–99 Rochester Americans AHL 20 12 8 1167 42 1 2.16 .934
2007–08 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 17 9 8 1049 52 1 2.97 .904
2008–09 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 6 2 4 375 16 1 2.56 .919
NHL totals 23 11 12 1424 68 2 2.87 .908

International

Year Team Event   GP W L T MIN GA SO GAA SV%
1997 Canada WJC 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0.00 —
2003 Canada WC Selected, but did not play
Senior int'l totals 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — —

See also

References

  1. ↑ Klein, Jeff Z. (October 14, 2013). "Rangers Put Backup Goaltender on Waivers". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ "Penguins 6, Sabres 3". United Press International. December 26, 1995.
  3. ↑ Vogl, John (September 21, 2012). Biron among locked-out players biding their time. The Buffalo News. Retrieved September 21, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Sabres deal Biron to Flyers, get Conklin". Canadian Press. 2007-02-27. Retrieved 2007-02-28.
  5. ↑ "Isles sign goalie Martin Biron to a one-year deal". National Hockey League. 2009-07-22. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
  6. ↑ Klein, Jeff Z. (February 28, 2011). "At Deadline, Rangers Are Unable to Fill Sudden Need". NY Times online. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
  7. ↑ Dan Rosen (2 July 2010). "Rangers sign Biron". NHL Media. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  8. ↑ "Rangers place forward Asham, goaltender Biron on waivers". Tsn.ca. 2013-10-14. Retrieved 2013-12-11.
  9. ↑ "Asham, Biron Assigned to Hartford". Blueshirts United. Retrieved 2013-12-11.
  10. ↑ TSN.ca staff (29 October 2013). "BIRON ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT AFTER 16 NHL SEASONS". TSN.ca. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  11. ↑ "Vinny Lecavalier Moved to First Line, Martin Biron Retires".
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Martin Biron.
Preceded by
Jay McKee		 Buffalo Sabres first round draft pick
1995 		Succeeded by
Erik Rasmussen
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