The Buffalo Sabres have burned through head coaches for years, but one decision from 2017 stands out as a particularly costly miss.
After firing Lindy Ruff during the 2012-13 season, Buffalo never really settled in behind the bench. Ron Rolston took over as interim coach, then got the full-time job in the offseason.
He was gone before long, replaced by Ted Nolan, who finished that season and lasted just one more. In 2015, the Sabres turned to Dan Bylsma for the experience angle, but that move fizzled too, and he was out after two seasons.
Then came 2017, when the Sabres handed the general manager job to Jason Botterill and let him pick the next coach. He landed on Phil Housley, then an assistant with the Nashville Predators for the previous four seasons.
From the outside, the process looked narrow from the beginning. Buffalo seemed locked in on Housley and never really cast a wide net, even though it had the time to do so while Nashville was making its run to the Stanley Cup Final.
That matters because one of the clearest fits on paper never even got a look: Rick Tocchet.
At the time, Tocchet was an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the same organization Botterill had come from, and Pittsburgh had just won its second straight Stanley Cup. He looked like the kind of candidate the Sabres should have seriously considered. Instead, Botterill and Buffalo didn’t even bring him in for an interview.
It turned out to be a glaring miss. Tocchet landed the Arizona Coyotes’ head coaching job that summer. Arizona didn’t become a powerhouse, but under Tocchet it finished above .500 in points percentage in his first two seasons and reached the playoffs in his second.
Buffalo, meanwhile, kept sliding. Housley’s two seasons produced only 138 points total, and the Sabres eventually fired him as well, right back into the coaching carousel.
There was one silver lining to those years: the No. 1 pick in 2018. Buffalo used it on Rasmus Dahlin, who remains a central piece of the franchise.
Still, it’s hard not to wonder whether the Sabres would have found some actual stability if they had chosen Tocchet instead of Housley - and whether that endless playoff drought might have looked a little less endless.
In Other News...
Former Sabres Defenseman Could Still Affect Buffalo Before Camp
Logan Stanley is still sitting in free agency as the calendar turns toward the 2026-27 training camp, a reminder that the market can move quickly on a defenseman whose profile once looked much bigger. Early reports had suggested he might command a deal worth $25 million or more, but his performance and limited role have clearly changed the conversation, leaving his next step very much in limbo.
For Buffalo, the unresolved part is whether a short-term reunion could still make sense before camp opens. A one-year return to the Sabres has not been ruled out, and while there is no agreement yet, the possibility gives this situation a little extra weight for a team that knows Stanley well and could still end up in the conversation if the market stays quiet. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Letting Alex Tuch Slip Away Raises A Bigger Question
Alex Tuchs exit from Buffalo did not happen quickly, and it did not happen quietly. The Sabres had been working through extension talks with him for more than a year, with discussions involving both the previous and current management group, but the sides never found common ground on valuation or the kind of long-term commitment each believed was fair.
The broader issue is what it says about where the Sabres are headed and how they are managing their cap space. Tuch eventually landed with the Washington Capitals, and his departure leaves Buffalo with a familiar kind of unfinished business: a player the organization valued, a market the club would not fully meet, and priorities that shifted enough to let the situation drift until the decision was made elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]