Don Granato, the head coach of the Buffalo Sabres, has been let go after the team missed the playoffs for the thirteenth straight year. Along with video coordinator Matt Smith, assistant coach Jason Christie has also been let go by the Sabres. Since the team last made the playoffs in 2010–11, they have been coached by Lindy Ruff, Ron Rolston, Ted Nolan, Dan Bylsma, Phil Housley, Ralph Krueger, and now Granato. They will now be searching for their eighth coach.
After just missing the playoffs the previous year, Buffalo entered this season with high expectations after placing 10th in the Eastern Conference with 91 points. They dropped to just 84 points this year, though, and were declared out of the postseason race last week. The fact that many of the Sabres’ best scorers saw a significant decline in their scoring output this season was one of the major factors that ultimately led to Buffalo’s downfall.
Tage Thompson missed time and plummeted from 94 points to 56, Alex Tuch dropped from 79 points to 59, while Rasmus Dahlin dropped from 73 points to 59. Jeff Skinner, who got 83 points the previous season but just 46 this one, was the largest loser. Granato eventually lost his job as a result of his inability to obtain more offensive production from the Sabres’ bench players.
Midway through the 2020–21 season, the 56-year-old was hired by the Sabres, and he coached for three more years in Buffalo before leaving with a record of 121–125–27, or a.512 points percentage. He could very well wind up back as an assistant following a turbulent period with the Sabres. He started his NHL coaching career in 2017 as an assistant with the Chicago Blackhawks.
In the meantime, Buffalo, which is trying to snap the second-longest postseason drought in professional sports in North America, will once more be searching for a new bench manager.