Sabres sign Ruff to 2-year contract extension

Lindy Ruff etched another chapter into his remarkable career as coach of the Buffalo Sabres this past season, steering the franchise to its first playoff berth in 15 years.

Still, the job’s not finished.

Ruff, the winningest coach in franchise history, signed a two-year contract extension on Wednesday, keeping him on the Sabres’ bench through the 2027-28 season.

The 66-year-old has called Buffalo home since 1979, when he joined the franchise as a second-round draft pick. He spent a decade with the Sabres as a hard-nosed, two-way player – including a stint as captain – and returned as coach in 1997-98.

He began his second stint as Sabres coach prior to the 2024-25 season with a clear mission to lead the franchise back to the playoffs for the first time since 2011, which he accomplished this year with an Atlantic Division title.

Ruff is a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, given to the NHL’s coach of the year. He won the award as coach of the Sabres in 2005-06 and has been a finalist five times with three different organizations (Buffalo, Dallas and New Jersey).

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This year’s Sabres won 50 games during the regular season, the third highest total in franchise history behind two Ruff-coached teams (2005-06 and 2006-07). Their first-round series win over Boston was the franchise’s first since 2007.

Buffalo’s path to the playoffs required a dramatic turnaround that began on Dec. 9, when the team was in last place in the Eastern Conference entering a road game in Edmonton. An overtime victory that night ignited a 10-game winning streak and from that point on the Sabres led the NHL in wins and points percentage.

Ruff’s fingerprints were evident on the team’s success, be it in the way the Sabres embraced his team philosophies – sayings that hung outside the dressing room such as “share the morning coffee” and “everyone ropes, everyone rides” – or how they adhered to a fast-paced, hardworking identity on the ice.

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“He’ll come in and tell you he’s gonna share the morning coffee and then let a couple guys hear it,” alternate captain Mattias Samuelsson said. “It’s not like he’s personally going after guys, but he definitely puts the group on notice about the standard around here. I think he’s been great this year just with feeling what the group needs that day, whether it’s a kick in the ass or just some support.”

“He is so good at pushing us," captain Rasmus Dahlin added. "That’s the main thing. There’s no time for effing around, you have to be uncomfortable every day. I think that’s what really helped us as a group. We took care of the other stuff, but he made sure he pushed us every day, and I think that brought us a lot of success for sure.”

In the playoffs, Ruff proved to have a deft feel for what the team needed at each given moment. He publicly downplayed any negatives following a Game 2 loss against Boston to help allow the team shift its focus to bounce-back wins in Games 3 and 4.

His most dramatic lineup moves in the second-round series against Montreal– inserting Konsta Helenius and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen for Game 4 and jumbling his forward lines for Game 6 – both led to road wins. And when the series ended with an overtime loss in Game 7 on Monday, Ruff’s thoughts were with his players and community first and foremost.

“This is a giant step for us,” Ruff said postgame when asked to reflect on the season. “A giant step for all the players to really get a feel of what it’s really like. To be proud of being a Buffalo Sabre, to be proud of playing here.

“When I took the job, I thought, number one, I wanted these guys to like being a Buffalo Sabre. I think they like being a Sabre and I think they made our city proud. It wasn’t the result we wanted and to a man, they’re all disappointed. But they gave them everything they had in the can.”

Ruff’s presence will provide continuity for a young roster returning much of its core going into 2026-27, including the top-four defensemen who served as the team’s engine in Samuelsson, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Bowen Byram. 

Buffalo’s defense-on-offense attack was a testament to Ruff’s fluidity as coach, one of the strengths of his career. He’d previously overseen two distinct, successful eras of Sabres hockey: one predicated on defense and physicality in front of Dominik Hasek and another built on speed and skill in the mid-2000s.

This year’s Sabres played a relentless, high-pressure style that allowed their talented top-four defensemen to routinely jump into the play offensively. Their 55 goals from the back end tied for second in the NHL.

“I think as a coach you adapt to the group you have,” Ruff said. “I remember earlier in my career I was criticized (for being) too defensive. Then I got criticized (for being) too offensive. Then for a little while I was too defensive again.

“But I think it's the group you have. You play to your strengths. And the strength is how mobile our defense are, how active they can be on helping our forwards create offense.”​

Western New York has shown its appreciation for Ruff’s impact on the organization. A “Welcome to Buffalo” sign on Route 33 was changed to read “Welcome to Lindy Ruffalo” in March. That phrase has since become popular on T-shirts and the posters the adorn the 300-Level walls at KeyBank Center on game nights.

Ruff saluted the fans as he walked off the ice following Game 7 against the Canadiens, then spoke afterward about how much they’ve meant.

“I’m so proud of our fans,” Ruff said. “And I know that this hurts them as much as it hurts us, but the energy around our team, around the city, in this building, outside the building. This was the first time our players got to experience something like this. I couldn’t be more proud of the way really our city represented themselves with our play.”

Ruff has represented them, too – and he’ll continue to do so for the foreseeable future.