Gilbert Perreault - Retirement

Retirement

Perreault retired at the end of the 1985-86 season. Thereafter, pension changes came into effect significantly boosting the pensions of retired players who played at least twenty games in the 1986-87 season. He duly came out of retirement, and still played effectively, scoring 9 goals in the first 14 games. He retired for good on November 24, 1986 after his twentieth game.

He finished his career with scoring totals of 512 goals and 814 assists for 1326 points in 1191 games. At the time of his retirement, Perreault was the sixth leading scorer in NHL history. Along with the other two members of the French Connection, Perreault was inducted into the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame in 1989. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1990, and the Sabres retired his number 11 in the same year, having been the only player to ever wear number 11 for the Buffalo Sabres; his #11 was the first number retired by the Sabres. When his French Connection linemates' numbers were retired, Perreault's #11 was lowered and raised back between Martin's #7 and Robert's #14, as Buffalo Sabres retired the French Connection line as a group, marking the first three players to have their numbers retired by the Sabres.

Since his retirement from hockey, Perreault has remained active in the game, coaching Junior teams in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. In addition, he also plays on occasion with the Buffalo Sabres Alumni Hockey Team for charity events.