List of Buffalo Sabres head coaches

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At 16+ seasons (1997–2013, 2024–present), Lindy Ruff has the longest tenure of any coach in Sabres history.

The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. They are members of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). There have been 20 head coaches of the Buffalo Sabres since the team's debut in the 1970–71 NHL season.

Punch Imlach, Scotty Bowman, Marcel Pronovost, Roger Neilson and Phil Housley have all made it to the Hockey Hall of Fame,[1][2] while Bowman, Lindy Ruff, Dan Bylsma and Ted Nolan have all won the Jack Adams Award, an honor given annually to the National Hockey League coach "adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success" (Bylsma and Bowman won their awards with other teams).[3] The first head coach, Hall of Famer Punch Imlach, has the lowest winning percentage of any Sabres coach, with a .370 winning percentage during his 120-game tenure.[4] Ron Rolston is a close second with a .372 win percentage in his two partial seasons with the team (compared equally, Rolston would have a worse record since many of Rolston's wins came in shootouts, which did not exist in Imlach's era).

The Sabres have made two appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals, losing four games to two against the Philadelphia Flyers in 1975, under Smith, and again four to two against the Dallas Stars in 1999, under Ruff. Ruff has led the Sabres into the playoffs seven times.[5]

Seven of the team's head coaches played for the Sabres during their careers: Floyd Smith, Bill Inglis, Jim Schoenfeld, Craig Ramsay, Rick Dudley, Lindy Ruff and Phil Housley. In addition, two others, Ted Nolan and Dan Bylsma, played for the Rochester Americans at a time when the Americans were the Sabres' top minor-league affiliate.

The current head coach is Lindy Ruff, who was hired for his second tenure on April 22, 2024.[6]

Key

      Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame

# Number of coaches[7]
GC Games Coached
W Wins
L Loses
T Ties
Win% Winning percentage
* Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame

Coaches

Coaches with multiple stints as head coach only count once in the official count of head coaches.

Joe Crozier coached the Sabres from 1972 to 1974.
Scotty Bowman was the sixth coach for the Sabres and coached the team from 1979 to 1980, and later from 1982 to 1985.
Ted Nolan coached the team from 1995 to 1997, and again from 2013 to 2015.
Dan Bylsma coached the team from 2015 to 2017.
# Name Term Regular season Playoffs Awards Reference
GC W L T/OTL Win% GC W L T
1 Punch Imlach 1970–1972 120 32 63 25 .370 — — — — [4]
2 Floyd Smith 1972 1 0 1 0 .000 — — — — [8]
3 Joe Crozier 1972–1974 192 77 80 35 .492 6 2 4 0 [9]
— Floyd Smith 1974–1977 240 143 61 36 .671 32 16 16 0 [8]
4 Marcel Pronovost 1977–1978 104 52 29 23 .611 8 3 5 0 [10]
5 Billy Inglis 1978–1979 56 28 18 10 .589 3 1 2 0 [11][12]
6 Scotty Bowman 1979–1980 80 47 17 16 .688 13 8 5 0 [13]
7 Roger Neilson 1980–1981 80 39 20 21 .619 8 4 4 0 [14]
8 Jimmy Roberts 1981–1982 45 21 16 8 .556 — — — — [15]
— Scotty Bowman 1982–1985 240 124 82 34 .588 22 9 13 0 [13]
9 Jim Schoenfeld 1985–1986 43 19 19 5 .500 — — — — [16]
— Scotty Bowman 1986–1986 49 21 25 3 .459 — — — — [13]
10 Craig Ramsay 1986–1987 68 25 37 6 .412 — — — — [17]
11 Ted Sator 1987–1989 160 75 67 18 .525 11 3 8 0 [18]
12 Rick Dudley 1989–1991 188 85 82 31 .535 12 4 8 0 [19]
13 John Muckler 1991–1995 268 125 109 34 .530 27 11 16 0 [20]
14 Ted Nolan 1995–1997 164 73 72 19 .503 12 5 7 0 Jack Adams Award [21]
15 Lindy Ruff 1997–2013 1,165 571 432 162 .560 101 57 44 0 Jack Adams Award [22]
16 Ron Rolston 2013–2013 51 19 26 6 .373 — — — — [23]
— Ted Nolan 2013–2015 144 40 87 17 .337 — — — — [21]
17 Dan Bylsma 2015–2017 164 68 73 23 .485 — — — — [24]
18 Phil Housley 2017–2019 164 58 84 22 .421 — — — — [25]
19 Ralph Krueger 2019–2021 97 36 49 12 .433 — — — — [26]
20 Don Granato 2021–2024 274 122 125 27 .495 — — — — [27]
— Lindy Ruff 2024–present — — — — — — — — — [22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ A running total of the number of coaches of the Sabres. Thus any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Billy Inglis took over as an interim coach for the rest of the 1978-1979 season
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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