Ruff signs 2-year contract to remain Sabres coach

Lindy Ruff signed a two-year contract to remain coach of the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.

The 66-year-old, whose contract was to expire, is signed through the 2027-28 season.

"Extending Lindy, a no-brainer," general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said. "Done a great job with his staff. I think the first time we talked about it was probably in LA on that trip, and then continued the talks. He wanted to focus on playoffs, but once we got to it in the end, it was pretty quick and straightforward talk. I think we’ve always wanted the same things, so it was easy. Just real proud of the whole group and what we went through, how much we learned. Obviously, we’re not where we want to be right now, and the disappointment will take a little while, but we did the exit meetings with Lindy together, and I just can’t emphasize enough to them and to everybody how excited I am about the future of this group and the potential that we have."

In his second season in his second stint with the Sabres, Ruff led one of the more remarkable turnarounds in NHL history and was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year. Buffalo was 11-13-4 and last in the Eastern Conference on Dec. 5 before ending the season on a 39-10-5 run to win the Atlantic Division with a 50-23-9 record, its first division title since 2009-10. The Sabres also ended the longest Stanley Cup Playoff drought in NHL history (2010-11).

"Really excited with the opportunity to carry on here and help lead this team to a championship. ... I'm humbled again by the opportunity," Ruff said. "I will add that probably the biggest decision, or one of my biggest decisions was talking with my assistant coach, which is my wife, because there's a lot of nights you go home and question whether you should still be coaching. She's the one that I would go home and talk to, and part of the decision to carry on is that my assistant coach was good with this too. And unbelievable support through all these years and probably wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for her too at the same time."

Buffalo lost to the Montreal Canadiens in seven games in the second round after defeating the Boston Bruins in six games in the first round for its first playoff series win since the 2006-07 season.

"It's meant a lot to get to that point," Ruff said. "But the point is about moving on now, about we had a good season. We had a good playoff. But like I said the other night, it hurts because I felt we were the better team, that we should still be playing. ... And when you look at where we came from to get to where we got, and we got to a Game 7 that you lose out in, to get to that point was really hard. Now the understanding of how hard it's gonna be to make sure we start the year the right way. There's gonna be teams that are gonna walk into this building and go, they're not taking us for granted. They're not going, well, we're in Buffalo. We've got the respect of a good team and now we've gotta be ready from Day 1 to win hockey games when we open up next year." 

The Sabres were fifth in goals per game this season (3.45) and tied for 10th in goals allowed (2.93) after finishing 20th in the NHL last season (3.50).

Ruff is the winningest coach in Sabres history, going 657-494-100 with 78 ties, including his first stint with them from 1997-2013.

He ranks fourth in League history in wins and is 950-741-169 with 78 ties in 1,938 regular-season games for the Sabres, Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils.

Ruff played 12 NHL seasons, including 10 with Buffalo from 1979-89. He served as captain for three seasons (1986-89).

"I think he has a really good feel for the pulse of the team, but he also listens. ... He’s always willing to listen," Kekalainen said. "Just personally, I’ve really enjoyed the relationship with him. I’ve worked with a lot of coaches, and some of them are more stubborn than others, and some of them listen more carefully than others, and Lindy’s been great to work with, just because he listens and respects different opinions from different areas of the game. The guys cracking the data together to prepare for the next game, or if it’s just his assistant coaches or medical staff or management, he’s always willing to listen."