Head coach Lindy Ruff is 50-53-11 in his second stint as Buffalo head coach
Jarmo Kekalainen’s first comments as Buffalo Sabres general manager on Tuesday were indicative of someone who looking to put his own stamp on an organization and make changes to a club that has missed the playoffs the last 14 seasons. The former Columbus Blue Jackets boss indicated that he will begin to assess the club from top-to-bottom, including the coaching staff and head coach Lindy Ruff.
"We're going to evaluate everything moving forward, whether it's the scouting staff, management, coaches, everybody is under evaluation at this point, but there are a lot of good people here that are great at their jobs." Kekalainen said. "Lindy's resume speaks for itself. He's been a great coach in the league for a long time. I've really enjoyed my interaction with him day-to-day. He works his tail off every day. He's early. He's watching tape, he's analyzing he's talking to the players. Got a good line of communication with him, and he's looking for ways to get better."
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Ruff is 50-53-11 in his second stint with Buffalo, and is in the final year of a two-year contract, so if the Sabres continue to battle with inconsistency, it is possible that the club could promote him to a senior advisory position or fire him. Potential options could be former Rochester Americans head coach and current assistant coach Seth Appert, and former Columbus head coach John Tortorella, who was fired by Philadelphia last season and is currently serving as a television analyst for ESPN.
"I have a pretty good head start in being here for seven months and being very closely with the team for the basically the whole fall. So I have some things in mind that might happen sooner rather than later," Kekalainen said. Then there's going to be some things that we need to evaluate a little bit longer, and we're going to take all the time we need to make those decisions."
Any changes are dependent on how the Sabres do in the near future. In spite of their mediocre record, Buffalo finds itself six points out of an Eastern Conference wildcard slot and third place in the Atlantic Division. If they begin to close the gap in the playoff race, things behind the bench may remain status quo.
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