Sabres hire Sam Ventura as VP of Hockey Strategy and Research

The Buffalo Sabres have hired Sam Ventura as vice president of hockey strategy and research, the team announced Monday.
Ventura joins the organization after spending the past six seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, including three as director of analytics. He was promoted to director of hockey operations and hockey research in November 2020.

The Swissvale, Pennsylvania native joined the Penguins as a team consultant beginning in 2015, providing analysis that helped the organization capture back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2016 and 2017. He was promoted to director of analytics prior to the 2017-18 season.
Ventura, 33, earned a doctoral degree in statistics from Carnegie Mellon University, where he worked as an assistant coach with the men's hockey team and had his research on NHL statistical player ratings published in the peer-reviewed Annals of Applied Statistics. He co-founded the hockey analytics website War-on-Ice.com in 2014.