Ellis was a Pegula/Adams hire for the organization. The Ruff hire was in no way to pry it from Adams/Terry. Hell, Adams worked for Ruff.
This was a hire to go in another direction from Granato without needing to hire someone that could disrupt the structure of communication between coaching/ownership/management.
Maybe they don't want Ray to talk to anyone other than Ellis between periods because it's the highlight of the broadcasts - like the Sabres own "Coach's Corner" and Ray is the Ron MacLean to Ellis' Don Cherry.