Martin Biron

Martin Biron
Biron during the 2010-11 NHL season as a member of the Rangers.
Born	(1977-08-15) August 15, 1977 (age 39) Lac-Saint-Charles, Quebec, Canada
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-American 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.

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. 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. 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.