Granato named Sabres interim head coach

Don Granato will step in as the interim coach of the Buffalo Sabres, starting with Thursday's home game against the Boston Bruins.
Granato was hired as an assistant coach under Ralph Krueger in June 2019. Krueger was relieved of his head coaching duties Wednesday morning by general manager Kevyn Adams.
Assistant coach Steve Smith was also relieved of his duties. Matt Ellis and Dan Girardi will serve as interim assistant coaches. Ellis is the team's director of player development and Girardi is a development coach.
"Don Granato's been a head coach for many years at different levels," Adams said this morning. "He's commanded a room as a head coach before."
Granato's coaching career spans nearly three decades.

Before being hired by the Sabres, Granato spent two seasons as an assistant coach for the Chicago Blackhawks after serving as the associate head coach for the University of Wisconsin during the 2016-17 season.
During his coaching career, Granato spent seven total seasons in the St. Louis Blues organization, including one season as an assistant coach for the Blues (2005-06). He also served as the head coach for the Worcester IceCats, St. Louis' AHL affiliate, for five seasons (2000-01 to 2004-05). In his first season with the IceCats, Granato was the recipient of the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award, awarded annually to the AHL's most outstanding coach.
He later spent parts of two seasons with the Chicago Wolves (AHL) as the club's head coach from 2008-09 to 2009-10.

Granato began his coaching career in the USHL during the 1993-94 season as the interim head coach of the Wisconsin Capitols. He became general manager and head coach of the Green Bay Gamblers the following campaign and led the team to the best record in the USHL in 1995-96 and 1996-97. The following season, Granato moved to the ECHL, where he spent two seasons as general manager and head coach of the Columbus Chill before winning the Kelly Cup in his only season as head coach of the Peoria Rivermen in 1999-00.
A native of Downers Grove, Illinois, Granato also has extensive experience as a coach at the national level for the United States. From 2011-12 to 2015-16, Granato served as a head coach at the United States National Team Development Program, where he led his teams to victories at the 2014 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge and the 2015 IIHF Under-18 World Championship. He was also an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship and at the 2014 and 2018 IIHF World Championships.
As a player, he captured an NCAA Championship with the University of Wisconsin in 1990. He spent two seasons in the ECHL with Columbus, posting 90 points (26+64) in 103 career contests.

Ellis is in his first season as director of player development. He played 356 games in the NHL over nine seasons, including 286 for the Sabres from 2009 until 2015. He spent the past four years working for the Academy of Hockey at LECOM Harborcenter, where he started as a development coach and was named director in September 2019.
"Matt has been with team all season in his development role. He'll continue in the development but he's going to step into this as well," Adams said. "The players have been seeing him every day, he's been on the ice every day so I don't see any sort of kind of burn-in time for him in terms of relationships with the players."

Girardi began his career as an undrafted defenseman and went on to play 13 NHL seasons, amassing 1,070 games between the regular season and the playoffs for the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning. He appeared in the 2011-12 All-Star Game and, despite a propensity for blocking shots, played a full 82 games five times. He joined the Sabres player development staff in January.
Girardi's work as an assistant coach will focus on the team's defensemen.
"Dan Girardi, for me, is someone that was very, very well respected in the league when he played," Adams said. "High character, high compete, thought the game very well as a defenseman, which I thought would be very helpful in short time to bring a fresh perspective.
"I've been extremely impressed with Dan in his role as a development coach on our staff for the past few months, the attention to detail he's showed, the discipline, the amount of work he's done with our prospects."
Adams said that Girardi will likely need to quarantine before he can step in behind the bench, so Rochester Americans head coach Seth Appert may serve as an assistant in the meantime.
Assistant coach Mike Bales, video coach Myles Fee and video coordinator Kyle Smith will continue on in their respective roles.
Granato's first game as interim head coach will come tomorrow night with the Bruins in town. Faceoff from KeyBank Center is scheduled for 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550 with pregame coverage on MSG starting at 6:30.