Do The Sabres Need A Taskmaster At Head Coach?

Sabres head coach is 119-123-26 in three-plus seasons

The Buffalo Sabres have less than a 1% chance of making the playoffs with six games to go in the 2023-24 regular season, and with the likelihood of missing the playoffs for a 13^th consecutive season, the future of head coach Don Granato will be one of the first questions asked to GM Kevyn Adams at the end of season media availability in less than two weeks.

While improving in the second half after opting to go with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as the primary starting goalie, the Sabres are a young team hovering around .500 and did not take the step towards the playoffs that many predicted before the season.

There are some who look at Buffalo and believe that they need a more hard-nosed coach to get over the top instead of someone like Granato, who is an excellent teacher and has a good rapport with his players.

Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek suggested on his show on FAN 590 in Toronto that the Sabres need John Tortorella, whose Philadelphia Flyers visit Key Bank Center on Friday. Tortorella, who served as an assistant coach in Buffalo from 1989 to 1995, and Rochester Americans head coach from 1995 to 1997 before NHL jobs in Tampa Bay, New York, Vancouver, and Columbus, has the Flyers barely holding on to a playoff spot, but the organization under former Sabre Danny Briere publicly stated that they were entering a rebuild before the season.

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Recent events such as benching center Morgan Frost earlier in the year and Sean Couturier a month after being named team captain have called into question Tortorella’s future in Philadelphia, but are his taskmaster ways a good fit in Buffalo?

Granato’s two-year contract extension begins next season, and there are some that believe that will be a factor in whether owner Terry Pegula and Adams will make a change behind the bench. It is likely that there will be changes this summer, but it is unknown how extensive those changes will be and if they will include Granato and his staff.

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