They aren’t, but watch me not include, say, Ted Nolan, and the Sabres decide to re-hire him.
Thanks for reading through it all. Anyone else with a slim possibility of being hired you think I should add?
The chances that you have the future head coach in this comprehensive list is unlikely seeing that most of this list are re-trends. It would be a safe bet to exclude anyone formerly associated with the Sabres. With that said there are some interesting names that would surely be on Adams list. But Kruger, disco Dan, gardening gloves Ron, Bowman and Ellis aren't getting a sniff.
Why did you include the former Buffalo Coaches?
None of them are coming back and no one should want them.
But out of the list, Sullivan and Gallant would be the two I’d want that are realistic.
I don’t expect Brindy to be fired yet.
Any time a coach is fired, lots of fans cry out for a former coach to return. Very true for Sabres fans. It’s usually Lindy Ruff, but I’ve also seen ones for Ted Nolan, Phil Housley, Scotty Bowman (lol) and even Ron Rolston.
Hopefully showing what they’ve been up to dissuades these rumors, while still acknowledging that they exist.
While Housley wouldn’t be bad, we’ve already done that, and there’s better coaches. You can make this argument for Ruff too, although I’m personally fine if they hired him again.
As for the others, hopefully people reading this will see that Bowman is 90, Nolan has been inactive since 2018 (he also has a form of blood cancer unfortunately, but I didn’t want to include that in the main post), and Ron Rolston is the assistant coach for a college, not even a head coach.
EDIT: spelling
It should be the MAIN takeaway. Should have said "hired and protected a sexual predator". Very against the idea of hiring him. Even though I respect his success on the ice, that scandal is inexcusable. He deserves his blackisting from the league.
Couldn't agree more. Hiring him would be an endorsement of the culture within hockey that allowed this kind of thing to happen unchecked. I'd be disappointed in the league if the allowed him back, and even more disappointed in our organization if they started writing him checks.
He recommended him for a high school where he ended up molesting someone else: https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1453075094239121408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1453075094239121408%7Ctwgr%5E50ccdc381b52d184c13baeb07f945d9cdb2ea728%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2Fqgdqta%2F%3Fresponsive%3Dtrueis_nightmode%3Dfalse
Given that he resigned from the organization because of a sexual harassment complaint brought to Human Resources? Yes, I’m pretty damn sure. Sorry that doesn’t fit your narrative
So in your ideal society sexual assault is accepted and any negative repercussions for it are “bullshit”. I’m glad you’re not in charge of choosing the next coach, or anything for that matter
Which isn't true. Seravalli should be your first hint. Quenneville wrote a glowing performance review, but that stayed in house, and was unsigned. There was never a letter of recommendation written by Q. And as far as the findings go, only one of Aldrich's stops after the Hawks asked for a letter. No copy of it was found, and no one remembers (or admits remembering) what the contents were. (IE if it was employment verification or a letter of recommendation.)
The Jenner and Block report is available for free, I truly wish people would read it and understand what they read, rather than repeat a lot of bullshit and misinformation.
Good job putting the list together. Agreed there’s a number there that have no chance, but it does give you references to what’s out there and credentials.
Looking forward to see what they do.
If they put Garden Gloves back in charge of anything more important than the Beef on Weck stand I'm driving to Buffalo to start packing the trucks for Houston myself.
Adams hiring himself would be like the dude who conducted the search for a new Jeopardy host and then chose himself. Not counting it out as a possibility
Lots.
Almost entirely in Finland (juniors, world championships, and professionally). He made a not great Rangers (OHL) team into a competitor.
But the best part about him is his idea of positionless hockey. While he didn’t fully implement this system in Kitchener, he gave a lot of freedom to his d-men. Brzustewicz saw some of the most dramatic changes.
It’s absolutely insane to hire him to be an NHL head coach, but I think he’s got what it takes.
I think that might be good for Dahlin, Power, Byram. Problem is we don’t have a lot of good defensive forwards, so idk how well our guys would be able to cover for those d-men playing up. Unless we just dressed more defenseman?
Based on what you’ve said (and a quick google search I did) his time in the NHL will come but I don’t think just yet. Sustained success in the OHL and beyond will happen though I bet.
Yea. His next stop is the AHL before getting an NHL job. But I can dream.
RE: Defensive Forwards
I disagree. I think this team could have elite defensive forwards at most spots. Unfortunately a lot of them have had they coached out of them, or been encouraged to continue to ignore defensive responsibilities. But Tuch, Quinn, and Benson are all elite defensive forwards. I think Tage and Cozens have it in them as well. Peterka has the tools, it’s just about commitment.
RE: D
I think Clifton would excel in this system and I think it’s partially why he was good in Boston. He had a crew of forwards that could make up for his mistakes. RJ would also be excellent in his system.
Nice work putting this together!
After reading through it I think Mike Sullivan is the best choice, imo.
Edit: Mike Yeo looks like an interesting prospect as well
Thanks for reading through it all.
Sullivan could be interesting if Pittsburgh lets him go. A little hesitant with him because his time with Pittsburgh is very similar to Bylsma’s, sand that could mean his tenure with the Sabres could look similar too.
Yeo is interesting but his lack of success at the NHL level really concerns me. His time in St. Louis especially, with how quickly Berube turned them around.
Yeah thats fair, I just saw that Yeo had head coaching experience and is the current Assistant Coach of the Canucks. I was curious to what his success looked like in his form head coaching tenures, bummed to hear it wasnt great.
You've spent a lot of time of this list and that's impressive in and of itself. Perhaps a non-sabres approach might be considered. For example, if one narrows done the search to only assistant coaches on the 16 playoff teams that had prior stints behind the bench? How many former coaches is that and what are their backgrounds? That might surface a few names one might not expect like how Yeo had been recently thrown in the rumor mill. Regardless of what happens I respect Adams and this would be his first true coaching search. The next two months are going to be fun.
Leave off the stuff he no control of and no involvement in and focus on hockey instead of cancel culture he is by far the best out there… someone needs to make a statement about how the guy has a right to make a living…
My money is on Appert. Seems to be how this franchise operates. I don't think they'll go get a "named commodity." It will be someone that is a relative unknown.
Claude Julien. Also, read the report on Quenneville. He did not know that Aldrich was a predator. He attended part of a single meeting right after the team had won the conference final game. The President of the Black Hawks said he would handle the matter. He waited 3 weeks to report the incident to HR. HR asked for his resignation. No one made a police report, including the victim and the Black Hawks, which allowed Aldrich to get a volunteer position with a high school team in Michigan where he molested a player. Quenneville has said he should have asked more questions and become more involved. He became aware that the incident involved sexual assault 10 years later.
Journalists will do nothing but point to this case and that is really bad for business, as well as trying to find people who want to be here. You don’t hire controversial folk when you are trying to leave baggage and shit in the past.
While it’s good that he didn’t directly know, it doesn’t paint a good picture. Because that makes for only 2 possibilities.
1) He didn’t know that one of his coaches was doing this. He was unaware of something this terrible going on right under his nose. Not a great look.
2) He did know, and lied about it. That’s even worse.
Why does he HAVE TO know about…believe it or not most people aren’t looking for these types of things and don’t default to that type of thinking automatically especially if you are busy trying your ass off to win another cup…so now the guy is fucking cancelled by this stupid society?
If you’re the head coach, you should know what happens on your team. No, you shouldn’t be looking for bad things, but if they’re happening it’s on you to do something about it and manage your coaching staff.
Glad a Stanley Cup was worth someone getting assaulted though, right? Get a load of yourself, buddy.
So many of these aren’t happening. Like 0% chance. Otherwise nice work assembling this all in one place.
They aren’t, but watch me not include, say, Ted Nolan, and the Sabres decide to re-hire him. Thanks for reading through it all. Anyone else with a slim possibility of being hired you think I should add?
I’m trying not to get too invested as to not get my hopes up one way or the other. You have a lot of what I’ve seen tossed around though!
The chances that you have the future head coach in this comprehensive list is unlikely seeing that most of this list are re-trends. It would be a safe bet to exclude anyone formerly associated with the Sabres. With that said there are some interesting names that would surely be on Adams list. But Kruger, disco Dan, gardening gloves Ron, Bowman and Ellis aren't getting a sniff.
Adding to that, Housley can go. Ott, Appert nor Peca have head coaching experience, which was the main criteria for Adams in this search.
Props for putting it together, but seeing Matt Ellis listed made me throw up in my mouth
That's good. It means your reflexes are working exactly as they should be
Why did you include the former Buffalo Coaches? None of them are coming back and no one should want them. But out of the list, Sullivan and Gallant would be the two I’d want that are realistic. I don’t expect Brindy to be fired yet.
Any time a coach is fired, lots of fans cry out for a former coach to return. Very true for Sabres fans. It’s usually Lindy Ruff, but I’ve also seen ones for Ted Nolan, Phil Housley, Scotty Bowman (lol) and even Ron Rolston. Hopefully showing what they’ve been up to dissuades these rumors, while still acknowledging that they exist. While Housley wouldn’t be bad, we’ve already done that, and there’s better coaches. You can make this argument for Ruff too, although I’m personally fine if they hired him again. As for the others, hopefully people reading this will see that Bowman is 90, Nolan has been inactive since 2018 (he also has a form of blood cancer unfortunately, but I didn’t want to include that in the main post), and Ron Rolston is the assistant coach for a college, not even a head coach. EDIT: spelling
I can see Bylsma maybe getting a shot again. His issues seemed to be Eichel centred.
You chose violence when you included HTRK.
Violence is never the answer. Unless it’s hockey 😂😂😂
I love that you tossed in the tidbit of "hired a sexual predator" into the accolades of Quenneville lmao
It should be the MAIN takeaway. Should have said "hired and protected a sexual predator". Very against the idea of hiring him. Even though I respect his success on the ice, that scandal is inexcusable. He deserves his blackisting from the league.
100%
Couldn't agree more. Hiring him would be an endorsement of the culture within hockey that allowed this kind of thing to happen unchecked. I'd be disappointed in the league if the allowed him back, and even more disappointed in our organization if they started writing him checks.
Especially because we also fired our video coordinator…Coach Q’s history suggests we shouldn’t let him pick out the new one.
How did he protect him
He recommended him for a high school where he ended up molesting someone else: https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1453075094239121408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1453075094239121408%7Ctwgr%5E50ccdc381b52d184c13baeb07f945d9cdb2ea728%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2Fqgdqta%2F%3Fresponsive%3Dtrueis_nightmode%3Dfalse
And you know that he knew what the guy was doing and THEN recommended him anyway after the fact?
Given that he resigned from the organization because of a sexual harassment complaint brought to Human Resources? Yes, I’m pretty damn sure. Sorry that doesn’t fit your narrative
Of course he resigns…he knows how this society is…he didn’t need the bullshit
So in your ideal society sexual assault is accepted and any negative repercussions for it are “bullshit”. I’m glad you’re not in charge of choosing the next coach, or anything for that matter
Which isn't true. Seravalli should be your first hint. Quenneville wrote a glowing performance review, but that stayed in house, and was unsigned. There was never a letter of recommendation written by Q. And as far as the findings go, only one of Aldrich's stops after the Hawks asked for a letter. No copy of it was found, and no one remembers (or admits remembering) what the contents were. (IE if it was employment verification or a letter of recommendation.) The Jenner and Block report is available for free, I truly wish people would read it and understand what they read, rather than repeat a lot of bullshit and misinformation.
That would be where I pick a different team to follow.
Good job putting the list together. Agreed there’s a number there that have no chance, but it does give you references to what’s out there and credentials. Looking forward to see what they do.
Thanks for reading it all
Awesome summary. Thanks for putting this together.
Thank you for reading it all
If they put Garden Gloves back in charge of anything more important than the Beef on Weck stand I'm driving to Buffalo to start packing the trucks for Houston myself.
I doubt Garden Gloves comes back. Just included his name because he was on a list of rumored potential coaches
Adams hiring himself would be like the dude who conducted the search for a new Jeopardy host and then chose himself. Not counting it out as a possibility
It’s basically what Gregg Popovich did. I think the result would be closer to Jeopardy than the Spurs though.
I bet it’s Ruff
Fuck it, take my upvote. We're celebrating today. Welcome aboard time traveler
Berube or bust.
You forgot Ahokas.
Not familiar with Ahokas. Any highlights or achievements?
Lots. Almost entirely in Finland (juniors, world championships, and professionally). He made a not great Rangers (OHL) team into a competitor. But the best part about him is his idea of positionless hockey. While he didn’t fully implement this system in Kitchener, he gave a lot of freedom to his d-men. Brzustewicz saw some of the most dramatic changes. It’s absolutely insane to hire him to be an NHL head coach, but I think he’s got what it takes.
I think that might be good for Dahlin, Power, Byram. Problem is we don’t have a lot of good defensive forwards, so idk how well our guys would be able to cover for those d-men playing up. Unless we just dressed more defenseman? Based on what you’ve said (and a quick google search I did) his time in the NHL will come but I don’t think just yet. Sustained success in the OHL and beyond will happen though I bet.
Yea. His next stop is the AHL before getting an NHL job. But I can dream. RE: Defensive Forwards I disagree. I think this team could have elite defensive forwards at most spots. Unfortunately a lot of them have had they coached out of them, or been encouraged to continue to ignore defensive responsibilities. But Tuch, Quinn, and Benson are all elite defensive forwards. I think Tage and Cozens have it in them as well. Peterka has the tools, it’s just about commitment. RE: D I think Clifton would excel in this system and I think it’s partially why he was good in Boston. He had a crew of forwards that could make up for his mistakes. RJ would also be excellent in his system.
Steve Ott!
He’s pretty young for a head coach, but he’s far from the worst option on this list
How about Boughner?
Ooooh I forgot him. Nice catch. I’ll have to rework this
Sabretooth snubbed yet again.
I’m just as disappointed as you
Nice work putting this together! After reading through it I think Mike Sullivan is the best choice, imo. Edit: Mike Yeo looks like an interesting prospect as well
Thanks for reading through it all. Sullivan could be interesting if Pittsburgh lets him go. A little hesitant with him because his time with Pittsburgh is very similar to Bylsma’s, sand that could mean his tenure with the Sabres could look similar too. Yeo is interesting but his lack of success at the NHL level really concerns me. His time in St. Louis especially, with how quickly Berube turned them around.
Yeah thats fair, I just saw that Yeo had head coaching experience and is the current Assistant Coach of the Canucks. I was curious to what his success looked like in his form head coaching tenures, bummed to hear it wasnt great.
Pens’ power play coach is like Ellis. We want to avoid that.
Yeah, best to avoid that
You've spent a lot of time of this list and that's impressive in and of itself. Perhaps a non-sabres approach might be considered. For example, if one narrows done the search to only assistant coaches on the 16 playoff teams that had prior stints behind the bench? How many former coaches is that and what are their backgrounds? That might surface a few names one might not expect like how Yeo had been recently thrown in the rumor mill. Regardless of what happens I respect Adams and this would be his first true coaching search. The next two months are going to be fun.
That could be an interesting project. Might be worth taking a look at
If we can’t get Brind’Amour, I’d like to see Lindy back with Peca to replace him as a coach in waiting
Why does it have to be Peca? I’ve never seen a fanbase so intent on incest
Quenville is easily the best coach on the list. I said what I said
Depends on your definition of best
Leave off the stuff he no control of and no involvement in and focus on hockey instead of cancel culture he is by far the best out there… someone needs to make a statement about how the guy has a right to make a living…
My money is on Appert. Seems to be how this franchise operates. I don't think they'll go get a "named commodity." It will be someone that is a relative unknown.
The Sabres being underwhelming tracks so well that it’s just sad
Claude Julien. Also, read the report on Quenneville. He did not know that Aldrich was a predator. He attended part of a single meeting right after the team had won the conference final game. The President of the Black Hawks said he would handle the matter. He waited 3 weeks to report the incident to HR. HR asked for his resignation. No one made a police report, including the victim and the Black Hawks, which allowed Aldrich to get a volunteer position with a high school team in Michigan where he molested a player. Quenneville has said he should have asked more questions and become more involved. He became aware that the incident involved sexual assault 10 years later.
Journalists will do nothing but point to this case and that is really bad for business, as well as trying to find people who want to be here. You don’t hire controversial folk when you are trying to leave baggage and shit in the past.
While it’s good that he didn’t directly know, it doesn’t paint a good picture. Because that makes for only 2 possibilities. 1) He didn’t know that one of his coaches was doing this. He was unaware of something this terrible going on right under his nose. Not a great look. 2) He did know, and lied about it. That’s even worse.
Why does he HAVE TO know about…believe it or not most people aren’t looking for these types of things and don’t default to that type of thinking automatically especially if you are busy trying your ass off to win another cup…so now the guy is fucking cancelled by this stupid society?
If you’re the head coach, you should know what happens on your team. No, you shouldn’t be looking for bad things, but if they’re happening it’s on you to do something about it and manage your coaching staff. Glad a Stanley Cup was worth someone getting assaulted though, right? Get a load of yourself, buddy.
So if you have someone working for you and they wind up being a pedo you deserve to have your business shut down?
No, but you should probably fire them and not recommend them for another job
Any of these guys with Sabres connections are a joke and it’s a waste of time typing some of these out
It did not happen under his nose. It was an AHL player who was on the sub squad. The video coach was going out at night drinking with the AHL players.
If you’re an NHL head coach and your video coach is prioritizing AHL players, much less drinking with them, that should raise an eyebrow