Head Coaches of the Buffalo Sabres

Lindy Ruff has been head coach for the Buffalo Sabres since 1997.

The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. They are members of the Northeast Division in the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). There have been 14 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, while Lindy Ruff, Ted Nolan and Scotty Bowman 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". 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. He is followed by Craig Ramsay who coached the team to a .412 record from 1986 to 1987. Floyd Smith has the best coaching record in terms of winning percentage, with a .503 record, during his term from 1974 to 1977. He is followed by his successor, Hall of Famer Marcel Pronovost, who coached the Sabres to a .611 record from 1977 to 1978.

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 from 1997 to 2001 and again from 2005 to 2007. The Sabres did not make it into the playoffs in the 2008 season.

Key

      Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame

#	Number of coaches
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.

Ted Nolan was the 13th coach for the Sabres and coached the team from 1995 to 1997, coaching 164 games.

#	Name	Term	Regular Season					Playoffs				Awards	Reference
			GC	W	L	T	Win%	GC	W	L	T
1	Punch Imlach	1970–1972	120	32	63	25	.370	–	–	–	–
2	Floyd Smith	1972	1	0	1	0	.000	–	–	–	–
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
—	Floyd Smith	1974–1977	240	143	61	36	.503	32	16	16	0
4	Marcel Pronovost	1977–1978	104	52	29	23	.611	8	3	5	0
5	Billy Inglis	1978–1979	56	28	18	10	.589	3	1	2	0	First All-Star Team Defense (1960, 1961) Second All-Star Team Defense (1958, 1959)
6	Scotty Bowman	1979–1980	80	47	17	16	.688	13	8	5	0	Jack Adams Award
7	Roger Neilson	1980–1981	80	39	20	21	.619	8	4	4	0	Roger Neilson Memorial Award
8	Jimmy Roberts	1981–1982	45	21	16	8	.556	–	–	–	–
—	Scotty Bowman	1982–1985	240	124	82	34	.588	22	9	13	0	Jack Adams Award
9	Jim Schoenfeld	1985–1986	43	19	19	5	.500	–	–	–	–
—	Scotty Bowman	1986–1986	49	21	25	3	.459	–	–	–	–
10	Craig Ramsay	1986–1987	68	25	37	6	.412	–	–	–	–
11	Ted Sator	1987–1989	160	75	67	18	.525	11	3	8	0
12	Rick Dudley	1989–1991	188	85	82	31	.535	12	4	8	0
13	John Muckler	1991–1995	268	125	109	34	.530	27	11	16	0
14	Ted Nolan	1995–1997	164	73	72	19	.503	12	5	7	0	Jack Adams Award
15	Lindy Ruff	1997–present	902	438	334	130	.558	98	52	36	0	Jack Adams Award

References