The Dallas Stars fired coach Peter DeBoer Friday morning, opening up the only remaining job opportunity for NHL coaches seeking work. But although DeBoer has failed to win a Stanley Cup in his 18-year coaching in hockey’s top league, him coming on the market should cause the Buffalo Sabres to dismiss current bench boss Lindy Ruff and charting a new direction for the franchise.
Now, let’s be clear right of the jump: we don’t believe Ruff is going to be fired — at least, not before the beginning of the 2025-26 regular-season. For better or worse, Sabres GM Kevyn Adams has hitched his wagon to Ruff, and it’s unlikely he’ll change his mind and send Ruff packing right away.
However, just because Adams won’t fire Ruff doesn’t mean he shouldn’t do it. Indeed, you can look at other recent NHL coaching decisions and see where organizations do make immediate changes to their coaching situation when the right candidate materializes.
For instance, the St. Louis Blues dismissed. coach Drew Bannister this season when the Boston Bruins fired Jim Montgomery in November. It took exactly five days from Montgomery’s firing before he was hired by St. Louis, and the move paid off very well, as Montgomery led the Blues to a 35-18-7 record and a playoff berth in the highly-competitive Central Division. St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong rightfully recognized his team needed a different voice, made his move, and the team was better for it.
The same could be true with Ruff, DeBoer and the Sabres. Say what you will about DeBoer’s spectacular flame-out in Dallas — and to be sure, he deserves every bit of criticism for throwing Stars goalie Jake Oettinger under the bus and sealing his fate as Dallas’ coach — but DeBoer has a clear track record of getting his teams into the Stanley Cup playoffs. He has coached teams that haven’t made the post-season, but that was mostly at the start of his career with sad-sack Florida Panthers and New Jersey Devils squads. Clearly, he’s not perfect, but no coach is.
DeBoer’s more recent record as coach speaks more to what he could bring to the table in Buffalo. In his most recent 11 seasons coaching the San Jose Sharks, Vegas Golden Knights and Stars, DeBoer has missed out on the playoffs just two times — and one of those times came when he was fired by San Jose after only 33 games in 2019-20. By-and-large, DeBoer has taken what’s been given to him and consistently led his team into the post-season. And getting into the playoffs is the first stepping stone that the Sabres need to take — and they need to take it next season.
As such, there is definitely going to be an urgency enveloping Buffalo right out of the gate next fall, and if the Sabres do struggle, we absolutely see Adams firing Ruff at that time. But if DeBoer somehow takes another job between now and then, you can make the argument Adams has missed out on a golden opportunity to hire a difference-maker coach because he wasn’t proactive.
More than ever, coaches are hired to be fired, and it’s not only in the NHL where that happens. The NBA has just seen New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau after he led the team to its strongest finish in a quarter-century. There is no appetite for patience anymore. But somehow, the Sabres are hanging tough with a coach who couldn’t do much for them last season, and who has missed the playoffs in five of his past six seasons. Someone make it make sense.
DeBoer is likely to get another kick at the can sooner than later, and the Sabres should be the team taking a chance on him. Buffalo ownership has to be cold-blooded about their management team, and Adams has to be cold-blooded about his coach.
But it certainly doesn’t feel like it at the moment. And time will tell, one way or another, whether the Sabres were wise to let it play out like this, or whether they should’ve bid farewell to Ruff and replaced him with someone who’s accomplished much more than he has of late.
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