In the past few weeks the coaching news has certainly been heating up, with many top names including former Sabres coach Lindy Ruff being in the mix. However, the Sabres are obviously not in that discussion as they tabbed Ron Rolston as their coach already. Think about this, if the Sabres hadn’t already named Rolston their coach, would anyone else have made a run at him?
It feels like the Sabres missed out on an incredible opportunity to at least talk to other candidates, someone like Alain Vigeault, Dallas Eakins, or maybe even Dan Bylsma. The coaching search seemed a tad lackluster, like they knew it would be Rolston from the start.
“Hockey Heaven” has been ripped quite a lot this year by fans, and rightly so, but one would think that if this team was so committed to being the best organization in the league they’d try to get the best coaching candidates. Rolston may not be the worst coach in the world, but his hiring was quite uninspiring.
The Sabres didn’t have a very thorough coaching search, or at least if they did it wasn’t made public. It’s another chapter in the Pegula-era Sabres that has been marked with mediocrity. Fans should expect better from the team they support. When it comes down to it, what would the Sabres have lost by still not having a coach? They aren’t practicing, Ron Rolston would likely still be available, and it would give them an opportunity to at least see if any of these other candidates would be interested. Instead, the Sabres settled.
So Stars, Rangers, and Canucks, enjoy your coaching searches. We’ll just stick to HARBORCenter announcements around here.