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Gilbert Perreault (born November 13, 1950) was a
Canadian ice hockey player.

Born in Victoriaville, Quebec, for seventeen 
seasons  Gilbert Perreault played centre ice for
the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League
from 1970 to 1986.
 
He was an oustanding player largely overlooked
because he played in a small market on a then
struggling team.  Blessed with an uncanny ability
to stick handle in close quarters, he was one of
the slickest playmaking centres ever to play the
game.

In 1969 and 1970 he was on the Memorial Cup
winning Montreal Junior Canadiens.  Previously,
all Junior Clubs in Canada were eligible for the
cup but the Junior Canadiens beat a club from
Prince Edward Island so badly in the playoffs that
Junior A was split into Major Junior and Junior A
with only the Major Junior clubs eligible for the
cup.

In 1970, surprisingly in retrospect, the Montreal
Junior Canadiens beat the Soviet national ice
hockey team, 9-3 in an exhibition game.

In 1970 two new franchises were awarded in the NHL
- Buffalo and Vancouver.  Buffalo by the luck of
the draw won the right to the first draft pick. 
This was the first year that the Montreal
Canadiens did not have the right to protect any
Quebec born junior players from the draft. 
Consequently, Perreault was available for the
draft and was taken first overall.  Dale Tallon,
who was taken second, never really overcame the
burden of comparison with the great Gilbert
Perreault and his career never blossomed.

Because the Buffalo Sabres were a new team in
1970, the broadcast crew was also inexperienced
and famously one night the television broadcast
cut away as Perreault picked up the puck behind
the net.  They had incorrectly assumed that the
whistle would blow calling an icing, only to have
Ted Darling screaming into the microphone as they
returned from the commercial describing
Perreault's brilliant end to end rush and goal
that the viewers had missed.

In his first full season in 1971 he won the Calder
Memorial Trophy as the League’s outstanding
rookie. A gentleman both on and off the ice,
Perreault won the 1973 Lady Byng Memorial Trophy 
for sportmanship combined with production. He was
inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1990.

The line he primarily played on was known as The
French Connection line with Rene Robert and
Richard Martin and he captained the Sabres from
1981 to 1987.

He was named to the 1972 Team Canada in the series
against the Russians but only saw activity in one
game and left the team before the series ended. 
He later played in the infamous 1981 Canada Cup
(ice hockey)|Canada Cup losing the final to the
USSR 8-1.

While with the Sabres, he reached the Stanley Cup
finals once but never won the cup.  He was named
to the second All star team in 1976 and 1977.  The
Sabres have retired number 11 in his honour.

Since his retirement from hockey, Perreault has
remained active in the game coaching Junior teams
in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

==See also==
* Retired NHL Players
* List of members of the Hockey Hall of Fame
* Hockey Hall of Fame
* List of NHL statistical leaders
* List of NHL seasons
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succession box | before = Danny Gare | title =
Buffalo Sabres#Team captains|Buffalo Sabres
captains | years = 1981-86 | after = Lindy Ruff
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