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Assistant Coaches

SabresFan26

SabresFan26

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May 28, 2003
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A thread dedicated to the next assistants.

Still on staff

Marty Wilford - think he is not retained
Matt Ellis - kept but reassigned
Mike Bales - Goalie Coach

Could see us hiring two guys to fill out the staff.

James Patrick - homerun hire. Elite with young people and Ruff’s right hand mans. NHL all star defenseman who could mentor all the young defense. Coached Benson, Krebs, and Savoie

Chris Taylor - offensive coach who knows the organization and was with him in NJ

Ryan McGill - was with him in NJ and was with Vegas before that.


Former players who are coaching:
Jay McKee, Michael Peca, Stu Barnes, Steve Ott
 
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Don't forget a former player in Steve Ott, will depend on if St Louis keeps him or not. Granted, they only overlapped for a partial season.
 
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Chainshot said:
Ott's PP in St. Louis was terrible.

Bob Woods coached a good PP in Buffalo before and is currently unemployed after being sacked as part of Evason's staff in Minnesota.
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Is Ott a PP specialist or is it just their other bad coach who is in charge of PP. I mean, Pittsburgh with such experienced and great players and Sullivan also failed on the PP.
 
I would expect Chris Taylor and James Patrick to be hired, makes too much sense not to. The main thing the new PP coach can do to succeed is put Benson on PP#1 right away with a healthy Tage and reap the benefits.
 
I have a thought that the most likely scenario is that one or both of Appert and Prospal will be coming to Buffalo and Matt Ellis will be coaching (assistant hopefully) in Rochester.

I don't expect Chris Taylor or James Patrick.

They won't want a third "defenseman" coach and Patrick likes coaching in the WHL.
 
Jacob582 said:
I have a thought that the most likely scenario is that one or both of Appert and Prospal will be coming to Buffalo and Matt Ellis will be coaching (assistant hopefully) in Rochester.

I don't expect Chris Taylor or James Patrick.

They won't want a third "defenseman" coach and Patrick likes coaching in the WHL.
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Prospal has a single year of North American coaching under his belt - this one. That would also mean Ruff has no one he's selected on the staff. Appert wouldn't be his hire if that's the move and they supposedly retained Wilford. That means Ruff would normally get a pick and he has no ties at all to Prospal, let alone dealing with Vinny's lack of experience.
 
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Chainshot said:
Prospal has a single year of North American coaching under his belt - this one. That would also mean Ruff has no one he's selected on the staff. Appert wouldn't be his hire if that's the move and they supposedly retained Wilford. That means Ruff would normally get a pick and he has no ties at all to Prospal, let alone dealing with Vinny's lack of experience.
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My guess is that Terry gave Lindy full keys to the kingdom and will allow Ruff to hire exactly who he wants in all positions (don't expect Bales to go anywhere).
 
Chainshot said:
Prospal has a single year of North American coaching under his belt - this one. That would also mean Ruff has no one he's selected on the staff. Appert wouldn't be his hire if that's the move and they supposedly retained Wilford. That means Ruff would normally get a pick and he has no ties at all to Prospal, let alone dealing with Vinny's lack of experience.
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All valid points. These would be my counter arguments too,

but....... Vinny's been trained by the best!
 
MeenOlViks said:
My guess is that Terry gave Lindy full keys to the kingdom and will allow Ruff to hire exactly who he wants in all positions (don't expect Bales to go anywhere).
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I hope Terry doesn't want to micromanage who gets to hire the assistants. I'm sure he's involved with the head coach hire. He's has a GM to worry about the rest.

I do wonder if staff (like Ruff and Fortan) will talk to Pegula directly.
 
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MeenOlViks said:
My guess is that Terry gave Lindy full keys to the kingdom and will allow Ruff to hire exactly who he wants in all positions (don't expect Bales to go anywhere).
Click to expand...

They already have one retained assistant. If they place Appert, that's two who aren't Ruff choices.
 
I don't think Lindy would've come back under the micromanagement of Terry
 
Probably nobody cares to know the contract status of the assistants, but last July is when they announced contact extensions for Ellis, Wilford, Christie and Bales.
 
Goalie coaches are inherited all the time. You can’t really count them. If you have a decent one working with goalies you’re going to keep around…you just leave it and move on.
 
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Just to ease my paranoia - Is there a double-secret speakeasy kind of Ruff thread? Are we just squatting on the main board? I just find it odd there's nothing specific that I see (pinned or not) on the team forum.
 
Ralonzo said:
Just to ease my paranoia - Is there a double-secret speakeasy kind of Ruff thread? Are we just squatting on the main board? I just find it odd there's nothing specific that I see (pinned or not) on the team forum.
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You must have blocked the original poster.

I'd like Peca as an heir apparent more than Appert. Peca has the same background as Ruff - former captain, tough as nails, leader, left the Sabres in less than idea circumstances but came back later and was welcomed with open arms, loves the area...
 
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