Lindy Ruff has plenty of hardware on his résumé, but the respect still hasn’t quite caught up to the work.
After steering the Buffalo Sabres to their first playoff berth since 2011, Ruff was left off the top 10 in Adam Proteau’s rankings of the NHL’s best coaches heading into the 2026-27 season. Proteau placed the Sabres bench boss at No. 12 in The Hockey News, even after Buffalo’s dramatic surge last season.
“Lindy Ruff was in danger of being fired early this past season, but the veteran bench boss turned things around for the Buffalo Sabres, who went 39-9-5 in their final 53 games to surge to the top of the Atlantic Division,” Proteau wrote. “And Ruff is a previous Jack Adams Award winner, so he's earned the respect of his peers.”
That omission lands a little strangely considering Ruff’s place in the league’s coaching hierarchy. He ranks fourth in NHL history in coaching victories, including the postseason, with 1,028. Only Scotty Bowman (1,467), Joel Quenneville (1,139) and Paul Maurice (1,042) are ahead of him, and they’re the only coaches to clear 1,000 wins.
Ruff’s Buffalo story is already loaded with milestones. The 66-year-old Canadian spent most of his playing career with the Sabres, guided them to the 1999 Stanley Cup Final, and later won the 2006 Jack Adams Award after the post-lockout team climbed into contention. The one thing missing from that résumé is the one thing that would change how he’s viewed everywhere: a Stanley Cup.
That title has stayed out of reach through his time with Buffalo, Dallas and New Jersey. Still, Ruff now gets another shot with the Sabres back in the contender class after reaching the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The challenge in 2026-27, though, is that Buffalo’s roster has some real moving parts.
General manager Jarmo Kekalainen has had a busy offseason. He moved Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram, two players who weren’t going to sign long-term extensions, and locked up Zach Benson on a new seven-year contract. He also added defensemen Olen Zellweger and Louis Crevier, then used the No. 4 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, acquired from Chicago in the Byram deal, to select Daxon Rudolph.
The Sabres are counting on a wave of younger talent - Benson, Josh Doan, Noah Ostlund, Jiri Kulich and Konsta Helenius - to help soften the blow of losing Tuch, especially since no high-profile forwards have been added yet. Buffalo native Patrick Kane has been linked to the team as an unrestricted free agent, but nothing has happened there so far.
From a long-term perspective, the front office has kept the organization pointed in the right direction. But for Ruff and his staff, this season could still be a grind.
Tuch was a major all-around presence, giving Buffalo value at 5-on-5, on the power play and on the penalty kill. He finished his Sabres run with 309 points in 360 games.
Byram, meanwhile, was a key part of the top-four defense group and especially valuable for the offense he created in transition. The Sabres are hoping Zellweger can eventually grow into that role, though his defensive issues could limit how much he can handle right away.
That means replacing both players won’t be a clean, one-for-one fix. Ruff is likely to spend plenty of time sorting out new line combinations and reshuffling roles before he finds something that sticks.
There’s also the goaltending situation, which could bring its own set of headaches. Buffalo is set to again lean on a three-goalie rotation with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Alex Lyon and Colten Ellis unless a blockbuster trade for Winnipeg Jets star Connor Hellebuyck changes the picture. Keeping three netminders sharp is never simple.
So even with the progress Buffalo has made, there may be some bumps ahead in a crowded Eastern Conference playoff race. If the Sabres finish in the top three in the Atlantic, Ruff should be right back in the Jack Adams conversation.
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Sabres Prospect Is Forcing A Tough Decision Buffalo Can't Dodge
The Sabres have already made one hard pivot by moving on from key pieces Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram once it was clear long-term extensions were not coming, and that kind of roster churn only sharpens the pressure on the next wave. With Buffalo potentially heading into the 2026-27 season with the group it has now, internal growth is no longer just a talking point. It is part of the plan, and prospect Konsta Helenius is one of the young players whose progress matters most.
Helenius has given the organization reasons to believe, from his promise last season to his work in international play, and he is now part of a larger roster question Buffalo cannot keep kicking down the road. The Sabres have waiver-exempt young forwards who can either stay in the NHL and learn on the fly or go to the AHL for more seasoning, and the decision gets tougher when a prospect starts making a case that he belongs. For a team trying to avoid another year of false starts, how it handles that next step may say a lot about how seriously it is leaning into the future. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Prospect Konsta Helenius Faces A Huge 2026-27 Opportunity
Konsta Helenius spent his first two AHL seasons in Rochester looking more like a player who was figuring things out than one who was simply passing through, and the progress showed up in the box score. His point totals climbed sharply from one year to the next, a sign the Sabres prospect was starting to translate his skill and pace into production against pro competition.
Helenius also got a taste of the NHL last season, appearing in regular-season and playoff games for Buffalo, which only sharpened the sense that his next step matters. With another season of development ahead, the Sabres are watching to see whether he can turn that upward trajectory into a real role in 2026-27, when the opportunity could finally match the promise. [Read more 🡒]