Confirmed with Link: Sabres have promoted Seth Appert to assistant coach/Amir Gulati to video coordinator/Girardi let go

[Jim Bob]

Appert or Wilford? Not sure if Wilford is taking the same role.

Wilford has been the D/PK asst coach.

With these moves, my guess is that Appert is replacing Ellis as the F/PP asst coach.

 

[KrakenSabresMike]

Lysowski confirmed Ellie will NOT be in the bench but rather an eye in the sky, so everyone can simmer down about that

I'm pretty down on Appert after this year's playoffs. Pretty bummed to see them run it back with largely the same crew. I was hoping Ruff would clean house behind the bench. Oh Well...

There’s no way he was cleaning house - there was reallly 1 or 2 spots open and doubt he had “ no say” ….seems like everyone wants to just push that narrative. Also isn’t Lindy the outside voice?! He’s the head coach and maybe what he wants or asks of then is very different than Granato…I mean granato was decent coach - and he was under a disaster of Kruger. He did what Kruger asked but was different not under him

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[HOOats]

The Monday morning chickens with their heads cut off crew is out in full force, nice.

I'm only a bit confused that Christie, Wilford, and Ellis were behind the bench last year, but it only seems like Wilford and Appert are tabbed for that role this year. Who am I missing as the third??

 

[Sabre the Win]

I have a feeling you will be seeing Interim head coach Seth Appert next season after this season at some point when we are going on our 15th season of missed playoffs.

 

[Jacob582]

Lysowski confirmed Ellie will NOT be in the bench but rather an eye in the sky, so everyone can simmer down about that

It's the succession plan. Ellis getting training in all the positions so he can take over for Appert as head coach in 2030. Peters and Rivet will be his assistants.

 

[Tijuana Donkey Show]

And if he is? Fans seem to be very confident that he won’t be behind the bench, but none of the organizations actions show he will be gone from the bench, and they have the head coach that likes Ellis when he played for him.

Bench or no bench. To me it’s odd to hire a new HC and basically retain the entire staff just reshuffled with no outside assistant.

I thought the best part of the Ruff hire was to pry the franchise from Terry/Kevyn. But this assistant coaching lineup is uninspiring.

I don’t know, maybe Lindy is bringing everybody in close to evaluate? Trying to be glass half full about it…

 

[Jacob582]

Bench or no bench. To me it’s odd to hire a new HC and basically retain the entire staff just reshuffled with no outside assistant.

I thought the best part of the Ruff hire was to pry the franchise from Terry/Kevyn. But this assistant coaching lineup is uninspiring.

I don’t know, maybe Lindy is bringing everybody in close to evaluate? Trying to be glass half full about it…

Terry is in charge. Not Lindy.

 

[SabresFan26]

I can’t think of a time in history of the NHL that a coach is fired, a new coach comes in and retains the entire staff inside the organization. Not one new assistant from outside the organization.

 

[BloFan4Life]

This was so predictable.

I heard something else this weekend from someone with the corp staff of the Sabres, that Ruff's almost entire salary is coming from NJ. Adams knew he could flip Granato for Ruff for the same cost to the organization.

The Sabres will continue to be a budget franchise. Pegula can't handle losing money. Everything he does is with at least breaking even in his mind, EVERYTHING. Bills, PSE, Stadium, Sabres, etc. He has zero issue not making a cent on the operations, but he will not lose.

 

[Sabre the Win]

Terry is in charge. Not Lindy.

I think it's more Adams trying to micro manage everything. He seems like behind the scenes he's really a control freak.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

This seems to confirm (at least for me) that Lindy wasn’t even allowed to hire his own assistant coaches.

So stupid if that’s what happened. I don’t believe for a second he chose to make no changes outside of adding Seth Appert.

 

[Sabre the Win]

Anyways a winning hockey team or any team for that matter starts winning at the top which means the owner/president shouldn't get in the way of the GM and the GM shouldn't get in the way of the HC.

Chicago Blackhawks are a great example of this, after Rocky Wirtz died and his son took over, the Blackhawks went on to win multiple Stanley Cups but before that, they were an embarrassment.

I don't think the Sabres see any real winning anytime soon with the amount of micromanaging going on above each position.

 

[Jacob582]

This was so predictable.

I heard something else this weekend from someone with the corp staff of the Sabres, that Ruff's almost entire salary is coming from NJ. Adams knew he could flip Granato for Ruff for the same cost to the organization.

The Sabres will continue to be a budget franchise. Pegula can't handle losing money. Everything he does is with at least breaking even in his mind, EVERYTHING. Bills, PSE, Stadium, Sabres, etc. He has zero issue not making a cent on the operations, but he will not lose.

It seems like most of the coaching candidates had term left over on their contract.

Should we have hired Q or Babcock to large salary to spend money?

 

[5 Minute Major]

I’m more than willing to give Appert a chance. I know some are down on him right now but he isn’t the head coach. I heard, from numerous posters here this season, that Granato would be a good assistant but he’s just not HC material.

I know I’d rather have Ruff and Appert behind the bench than who we had last season.

 

[MOGlLNY]

This was so predictable.

I heard something else this weekend from someone with the corp staff of the Sabres, that Ruff's almost entire salary is coming from NJ. Adams knew he could flip Granato for Ruff for the same cost to the organization.

The Sabres will continue to be a budget franchise. Pegula can't handle losing money. Everything he does is with at least breaking even in his mind, EVERYTHING. Bills, PSE, Stadium, Sabres, etc. He has zero issue not making a cent on the operations, but he will not lose.

Hi just so you’re aware according to the CBA the coach has to be offered around their market value when they’re signed.

There’s no such thing as “let’s sign Lindy for $1 then devils pay the rest.”.

 

[Sabre the Win]

It seems like most of the coaching candidates had term left over on their contract.

Should we have hired Q or Babcock to large salary to spend money?

I don't think anyone will hire them however I would have at least seen if Sheldon Keefe was interested. He might not have been able to get the Leafs out of the first round in many people's eyes but I saw the Leafs offense dry up and bad goaltending let them down more so then Sheldon Keefes coaching.

 

[RefsIdeas]

Hi just so you’re aware according to the CBA the coach has to be offered around their market value when they’re signed.

There’s no such thing as “let’s sign Lindy for $1 then devils pay the rest.”.

IIRC the Sabres will just pay whatever $ above what he was making in NJ.

So if he was making $2m in NJ and he signed for $3m in Buffalo, we will pay him $1m.

 

[MOGlLNY]

I think it's more Adams trying to micro manage everything. He seems like behind the scenes he's really a control freak.

I mean this simply isn’t true. Our head scout was in tears last year because he was “finally under a GM who let them do their job.” His words.

 

[Tijuana Donkey Show]

This seems to confirm (at least for me) that Lindy wasn’t even allowed to hire his own assistant coaches.

So stupid if that’s what happened.

It has been fairly open around the league, and from this org, that they struggle to bring in talent through FA. Lindy may not be a world beater, but I think he is a pretty well respected hockey man in the league. Forcing an assistant staff on him is only making it more difficult for this franchise to crawl out of its hole.

 

[MOGlLNY]

IIRC the Sabres will just pay whatever $ above what he was making in NJ.

So if he was making $2m in NJ and he signed for $3m in Buffalo, we will pay him $1m.

Correct

 

[Jacob582]

I don't think anyone will hire them however I would have at least seen if Sheldon Keefe was interested. He might not have been able to get the Leafs out of the first round in many people's eyes but I saw the Leafs offense dry up and bad goaltending let them down more so then Sheldon Keefes coaching.

Adams knows through experience, no other established coach wants to come to Buffalo.

 

[HOOats]

It's the succession plan. Ellis getting training in all the positions so he can take over for Appert as head coach in 2030. Peters and Rivet will be his assistants.

I'm only half-joking when I say bringing in Rivet as a "do the opposite of everything I say" coach/consultant might be worthwhile. Just like a gambling tout who gets 80% of his picks wrong is really an 80% accurate tout if you just know to fade him.

This was so predictable.

I heard something else this weekend from someone with the corp staff of the Sabres, that Ruff's almost entire salary is coming from NJ. Adams knew he could flip Granato for Ruff for the same cost to the organization.

The Sabres will continue to be a budget franchise. Pegula can't handle losing money. Everything he does is with at least breaking even in his mind, EVERYTHING. Bills, PSE, Stadium, Sabres, etc. He has zero issue not making a cent on the operations, but he will not lose.

The real evidence of the cheapo narrative for me would be if he only has two assistants, Wilford and Appert, behind the bench (who were already on payroll). Lindy (and Donnie) had three bench assistants the last four years.

If it's a shift in philosophy, I'm very curious to hear more. Anyone know how many teams still run only two bench assistants?

 

[BloFan4Life]

Hi just so you’re aware according to the CBA the coach has to be offered around their market value when they’re signed.

There’s no such thing as “let’s sign Lindy for $1 then devils pay the rest.”.

Umm, I can confirm you are 100% incorrect.

Lindy is making the same amount of money that he would have made not working. This is a charity case for Lindy. The Devils are paying his salary for the next two years.

It seems like most of the coaching candidates had term left over on their contract.

Should we have hired Q or Babcock to large salary to spend money?

Sabres reached out to coaches and they want to double dip and get more above what they were getting from the other teams.

 

[MOGlLNY]

Umm, I can confirm you are 100% incorrect.

No. I’m not. It was literally discussed on 32 thoughts this morning. Go ahead and listen