List of Buffalo Sabres head coaches

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 16 head coaches of the Buffalo Sabres since the team's debut in the 1970–71 NHL season.

Punch Imlach, Scotty Bowman, Marcel Pronovost and Roger Neilson have all made it to the Hockey Hall of Fame,[1][2] while Bowman, Lindy Ruff 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".[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]

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

Key

      Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame

# Number of coaches[6]
GC Games Coached
W Wins
L Loses
T Ties
Win% Winning percentage
* Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame

Coaches

Scotty Bowman was the 6th coach for the Sabres and coached the team from 1979 to 1980, and later from 1982 to 1985.
Lindy Ruff, the team's longest tenured coach, coached the Sabres from 1997 to 2013.
Ted Nolan, the most recent head coach of the Sabres, coached the team from 1995–97 and 2013–15.
# 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 – – – – [7]
3 Joe Crozier 1972–1974 192 77 80 35 .492 6 2 4 0 MJHL Second All-Star Team (1948)
MJHL First All-Star Team (1949)
QHL Second All-Star Team (1954)
QHL First All-Star Team (1957)
Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame 		[8]
— Floyd Smith 1974–1977 240 143 61 36 .671 32 16 16 0 [7]
4 Marcel Pronovost 1977–1978 104 52 29 23 .611 8 3 5 0 First All-Star Team Defense (1960, 1961)
Second All-Star Team Defense (1958, 1959) 		[9]
5 Billy Inglis 1978–1979 56 28 18 10 .589 3 1 2 0 [10][11]
6 Scotty Bowman 1979–1980 80 47 17 16 .688 13 8 5 0 Jack Adams Award [12]
7 Roger Neilson 1980–1981 80 39 20 21 .619 8 4 4 0 Roger Neilson Memorial Award [13]
8 Jimmy Roberts 1981–1982 45 21 16 8 .556 – – – – [13]
— Scotty Bowman 1982–1985 240 124 82 34 .588 22 9 13 0 Jack Adams Award [12]
9 Jim Schoenfeld 1985–1986 43 19 19 5 .500 – – – – [14]
— Scotty Bowman 1986–1986 49 21 25 3 .459 – – – – [12]
10 Craig Ramsay 1986–1987 68 25 37 6 .412 – – – – [14]
11 Ted Sator 1987–1989 160 75 67 18 .525 11 3 8 0 [15]
12 Rick Dudley 1989–1991 188 85 82 31 .535 12 4 8 0 [16]
13 John Muckler 1991–1995 268 125 109 34 .530 27 11 16 0 [17]
14 Ted Nolan 1995–1997 164 73 72 19 .503 12 5 7 0 Jack Adams Award [18]
15 Lindy Ruff 1997–20131165571432162.56010157440Jack Adams Award [19]
16 Ron Rolston Feb. 2013 – Nov. 20135119266.373–––– [20]
— Ted Nolan 2013–2015144408717.337–––– [18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "List of honored Builders". Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  2. ↑ "List of honored Officials". Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  3. ↑ "Jack Adams Award". NHL. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Punch Imlach". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  5. ↑ "Statistics". Sabres.nhl.com. Retrieved 2008-06-09.
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Floyd Smith". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  8. ↑ "Joe Crozier". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  9. ↑ "Marcel Pronovost". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  10. ↑ Billy Inglis took over as an interim coach for the rest of the 1978-1979 season
  11. ↑ "Billy Inglis". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "Scotty Bowman". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Roger Neilson". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Jim Schoenfeld". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  15. ↑ "Ted Sator". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  16. ↑ "Rick Dudley". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  17. ↑ "John Muckler". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Ted Nolan". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  19. ↑ "Lindy Ruff". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  20. ↑ "Ron Rolston". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2013-05-13.