Hard not to be disappointed in this staff. On the positive side, I get keeping Bales. With UPL's progress, they don't want to rock the boat there. That makes sense to me. And while it's weird they're keeping Ellis on the staff, at least it seems like he's being demoted to some minor, video coaching role. Moving him into this role instead of firing him will probably have no real difference on the team.
I don't hate promoting Appert either. I'll be the first to confess that others follow the Amerks more closely than I. But I think he's had a little more success there than some are giving him credit for. By my count, there's just 4 teams that have made it to the round of 16 for 3 years running, including Rochester (Syracuse, Rockford, and Milwaukee being the others). And that stretch includes a run to the conference finals, another run to the conference semifinals, and a top 10 finish in the regular season this year. I'm not exactly super jazzed about the hire, but I don't think it's totally crazy either.
But Wilford? That...I cannot abide. We've all witnessed the Sabres' struggles in the defensive zone since he's been here. And his time with the Ducks was a mess too. I mean, they had the second worst 5 on 5 xGA/60 in the entire NHL while he coached their blueline. Honestly, it's hard to imagine any other NHL team employing him to coach their defense with his resume. He would be back to the minor leagues if the Sabres let him go. There was an obvious opportunity for an improvement here, and we passed it up. Really frustrating.
Moreover, it's hard to believe that this is the best coaching staff we could build. I mean, really? Everyone we need to coach the Sabres to a Stanley Cup victory was already in the building? Hogwash.
There have been concerns about Granato's staff right from the get go. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence to hire an ECHL coach, a guy who was just coaching one of the worst defenses in the league, another guy with no coaching experience at all, and the goalie coach who was already here. I had hoped against hope that maybe Donnie was on to something with some of these guys. Or that maybe he would recognize their flaws quickly and seek out improvements.
But...I always feared that maybe these hirings were, at least somewhat, out of his control. That these were the best assistants he could afford with the budget he was given. Not the best assistants for the job. I don't have any sources to substantiate this theory. But Lindy just hiring some guys he didn't even know, instead of doing a real search to build the best staff he can, raises an awfully lot of questions. It's hard to understand why he would do something like that. Unless, of course, the Pegulas are refusing to spend money on quality assistants.