While changes are possible, it appears Sabres will keep assistant coaches

ORCHARD PARK – Kevyn Adams said he has given Lindy Ruff the green light to change his staff. The general manager even noted the coach has spoken to people about joining the Buffalo Sabres.

But right now, it appears Ruff, 65, will bring back the assistant coaches he worked with last season, when the Sabres mustered 79 points and finished 14th in the Eastern Conference.

Most teams, of course, likely wouldn’t run back the same staff following an underwhelming season and their 14th consecutive postseason DNQ. Remember, other than Seth Appert, Ruff inherited his assistants – Mike Bales, Matt Ellis and Marty Wilford – from Don Granato, his predecessor.

“I don’t worry about what people think, or I don’t pay attention to noise or outside perspective,” Adams said Tuesday at One Bills Drive during media availability ahead of this weekend’s NHL Draft. “I think I’ve been pretty clear I’ll do whatever I believe is right to help the organization, which is something that we’ve backed up over the years.”

It should be noted the Sabres changed their strength and conditioning coach, hiring Brian Galivan to replace Ed Gannon.

Clearly, Adams trusts Ruff, who on April 17 became the fifth NHL coach to win 900 games, and will defer to him.

Adams said the entire coaching staff is under contract for next season.

“We have an excellent coaching staff, I guess I would say, (is) the way I look at it,” he said when asked if the staff would return. “Lindy is clearly someone that’s done this a long time and has a lot of experience and knows exactly what he’s looking for out of a coaching staff.”

Adams said Ruff has “had a lot of conversations with a lot of people.”

“But overall, I think I’ve asked Lindy to evaluate the coaching staff, give me your thoughts and if there’s changes, we would make changes,” he said. “We are open to adding as well. But with Lindy, he is someone that has to trust the people that he is in the trenches with every day, and he clearly does.”

Ruff, the NHL’s oldest coach, understands the benefits of having continuity. While the Sabres underwhelmed most of last season, his first back in Buffalo, they finished on a 12-7-1 run, showcasing a more consistent and mature style.

Those five weeks, nearly one-quarter of the season, might’ve convinced Ruff the staff’s message had finally gotten through to players.

During his first run as coach of the Sabres from 1997 to 2013, he rarely fired assistants. His staff usually changed if a coach pursued a new opportunity or retired.

While the coaching staff has stayed intact, Adams has recently beefed up the front office, hiring former Columbus Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen as a senior advisor and former NHL center Eric Staal as a special assistant to the GM.

Adams said he had been thinking about adding an advisor “for a long time.”

“I wanted to be very selective, picky … in who that person was because there was some really specific criteria that I was looking for in someone in this role,” he said.

Adams said he wanted to hire someone who had been a GM – “That knows exactly what it feels like in certain moments,” he said – and was willing to work.

“Not that ‘OK, I had done that role, and I’ll be there once in a while if you want a phone call,’” he said. “Jarmo, in my discussions with him leading up to hiring him was, ‘I’m all in and I’m going to be every part of this organization. He’s going to get involved, add his experience, his perspective.”

Adams said Kekalainen, who will based out of Columbus, will spend a lot of time in Buffalo.

“He has been, in a very short time, a really, really big asset for me, personally, for the whole organization,” he said. “And my style, in terms of leadership, is collaborative, flat organization where everybody’s got a voice, talk to each other, get in the room, debate, sometimes fight, and come out with what we think’s the right answer for the Buffalo Sabres.”

Meanwhile, Staal, having retired in 2023 following an 18-year NHL career in which he scored 1,063 points and won the Stanley Cup in 2006 alongside Adams, offers the hockey department a unique perspective.

“It’s really valuable to have someone in your hockey operations department to have someone who is fresh off of playing,” Adams said. “To have someone like Eric with the Hall of Fame-(type) career, he’s done everything you can possibly do in this game, successfully. …

“Instantly you can ask about a player, and he says, ‘Hey, this is what I see, playing against him this is what he’s like,’ and that’s invaluable.”

Adams said Sabres want to sign winger Alex Tuch, who’s entering the final season of his seven-year, $33.25 million contract, to a new deal.

Tuch, the Sabres’ best two-way forward, scored 36 goals and 67 points in 82 games last season.

“He is, to me, a really important player for us,” Adams said. “He loves Buffalo, wants to be here. That was really clear. And we believe in him and realize what he brings every night.

“There’s a lot going on right now in terms of the draft and everything going on this time of year. But he understands he’s a priority.”