Published by hockeybuzz.com, 5-10-2019
The Buffalo Sabres coaching situation is entering treacherous waters as an already small group of candidates got smaller. The big dog on the list was three-time Cup-winner Joel Quenneville who, as expected, went to the Florida Panthers. Two other name coaches went off the board as Alain Vigneault (PHI) and Todd McLellan (LAK) went in rapid succession last month and the list of "meh" candidates got even shorter after Vigneault hired two former head coaches, Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo, to be his assistants.
Yesterday we found out that Sweden National head coach Rickard Grönborg signed a contract to coach ZSC Lions in Switzerland. The early stages of the story had sources saying that Sabres general manager Jason Botterill is leaning heavily towards a veteran NHL head coach and that Anaheim, Edmonton and Ottawa, who are all without head coaches, are leaning that way as well. Grönborg was the hot international name on the list of coaching candidates and is widely respected on the international scene with Team Sweden going for their third consecutive World Championship gold this month. However, he hasn't coached a full season since 2004-05 when he was an assistant with the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL and his only head coaching experience was in Tier III Junior A.
Toronto Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe is the name most widely heard as he's a young, analytics-driven bench-boss who's had success wherever he's coached, which includes hoisting the AHL's Calder Cup last year. The Marlies are romping their way through the Eastern Conference right now having swept the first two rounds and after the playoffs are finished he could very well be in the Toronto Maple Leafs plans sooner rather than later.
So where does that leave Buffalo and the three other bottom-dwelling teams in search of a solution behind the bench?
Not much.
The Athletic's John Vogl introduced his recent article with this tweet, "This list of Sabres coaching candidates has 13 names (who've combined for 3,300 wins.) You might not like a single one of them."
Amongst that group are Dave Tippett, a veteran head coach of over 1,100 games who coached in Dallas and Arizona and won the Jack Adams Award for coach of the year in 2010 and Todd Richards who was with Tampa as an assistant the last three years and had head coaching stints in Minnesota and Columbus before that with only one playoff appearance between the two franchises.
After that Jacques Martin's name pops up with Vogl writing that the backlash from the fans "would be off the charts." The 67 yr. old Martin has been an assistant in Pittsburgh since 2013, under former Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma as well, with Vogl pointing out that fans "have grown wary of the Pittsburgh-to-Buffalo career path" and that the players might not respond to "an aging, stop-gap solution on the bench."
That's really where Buffalo is at right now, a stop-gap coach because the coaching candidates out there don't seem to be very interesting. Names like Kirk Mueller, Bob Hartley, Bob Bougner, Scott Arniel, Jack Capuano, John Stevens and Guy Boucher are less than inspiring and with the way this bunch is, the Sabres would probably be in the market for another coach two years down the road, and there's a good possibility that they would be looking for another GM as well.
All of those coaches, save for Martin, would be looking for longer-term deals that would give them the time to execute their vision. Which is fair. But from an ownership perspective it doesn't make sense for Kim and Terry Pegula to sign off on a long-term deal for a head coach that might be perceived as average, or even less than average, especially when it looks as if they'll be paying two former coaches this year as well. In addition, after going through two post-tank head coaches and a general manager, they may be a little gun-shy unless they're certain this coach can be better than the prior two.
In all of this mess there is a very familiar name that may be in the mix--Lindy Ruff. I'm sure there are plenty of face-palms smacking in unison at the mention of Ruff's name but he shouldn't be discounted for a number of reasons.
First off, Ruff has a solid resume that is better than, or at least equal to, all the veteran coaches out there which includes a Stanley Cup Finals appearance and three conference finals appearances. Ruff has coached in over 1,500 NHL games in Buffalo and Dallas and did so with Sabres teams at various stages of their development while also coaching different styles of play and in differing stages of the NHL's various metamorphoses. In addition to his resume, Ruff is respected in the room and maybe most importantly ownership seems to have the utmost respect for him as a person and a coach.
Ruff was an assistant with the NY Rangers the last two seasons and it's unsure whether he wants to be a head coach again or whether he'd be able to cut ties with the Rangers to take a head coaching position. He's in Slovakia for the IIHF World Hockey Championships as one of the coaches for Team Canada, who happens to have Botterill as one of their general managers. Should there be any interest on his part Botterill might be able to gauge that without stepping over any tampering boundaries.
In assessing the coaching search in Buffalo, unless Keefe ends up being a possibility or even Mike Babcock, whom Keefe would replace should the Maple Leafs choose to make a bold move like that at the end of the Marlies playoff run, the Sabres have very little to work with. They could hire Tippett or Richards, or any other candidate, and sign them to a three or four year contract and hope they can get the job done or they could take most likely the best path, find a stop-gap coach for a year or two and wait for their ideal coach to pop up. There are only two coaches who might entertain that notion--Martin and Ruff--and I think most in Sabreland, including owners Terry and Kim Pegula, would take Ruff.
The big thing for the Sabres right now is to get them winning again and there's a much better probability that Martin or Ruff could get them moving in the right direction. We know it's not ideal, but Buffalo's not exactly in an ideal situation and ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
Right?
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