After playing three years with the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL Sawyer was signed by the St. Louis Blues in 1995. While with the Chiefs Sawyer established himself as a hard hitting enforcer, and he would continue this role in the NHL. For the 1995–1996 season Sawyer played the majority of the year with the Worcester IceCats while also making his NHL debut with the Blues. He appeared in six games with the Blues before being traded to the Boston Bruins in a deal that sent Steve Leach to the Blues. Sawyer appeared in another two games with the Bruins that year. The 1996–1997 season saw Sawyer play 60 games with the Providence Bruins and two games with the Boston Bruins. After that year he was released by the Bruins. The next three years saw Sawyer toil in the minors with the Michigan K-Wings, Worcester IceCats, and Springfield Falcons. He signed contracts with the Dallas Stars in 1997 and again with the Blues in 1998 but he did not appear in any games with the teams. Sawyer signed with the Phoenix Coyotes for the 1999–2000 season and finally returned to the NHL when he played three games with the Coyotes. Sawyer then signed with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 2000. With the Mighty Ducks, Sawyer finally saw regular playing time in the NHL and established himself as one of the top enforcers in the NHL. After playing in only nine games with the Mighty Ducks during the 2000–2001 season Sawyer made the team for the 2001–2002 season. He appeared in 57 contests and logged 221 penalty minutes along with his first career NHL goal. That year he was also involved in a large brawl in a game between the Mighty Ducks and Calgary Flames. After Craig Berube hit Mighty Ducks' goalie Jean-Sébastien Giguère, Sawyer skated in the Flames zone on the next play and rammed into Flames' goalie Mike Vernon, leading to a number of fights and more than 300 penalty minutes between the teams in the final minutes of the game. The 2002–2003 season saw Sawyer play 31 games with the Mighty Ducks before suffering a concussion in a fight with Brad Norton. He missed the remainder of the season and officially announced his retirement in 2003.
Post-playing career
Sawyer currently works as a commentator for TSN doing regional broadcasts for the Winnipeg Jets. On a January 4, 2020 broadcast, Sawyer admitted that he was involved in a player hazing incident while an assistant coach with the Spokane Chiefs.
