Kekäläinen: Ruff's new contract a 'no-brainer' for Sabres

Lindy Ruff hoped – expected, even – to be spending his Wednesday afternoon on a flight to Raleigh. But with Buffalo eliminated from the playoffs in Monday’s Game 7, he was instead finalizing something months in the making: a two-year contract extension to continue coaching the Sabres.

“It’s great to be here,” Ruff told the media at KeyBank Center, “in the sense that I’m going to continue. And I'm humbled again by the opportunity.”

Sixty-six years old and already with 25 years of NHL head coaching experience, Ruff was confident he wanted to continue leading this upstart Sabres team. So, once he got the necessary support, it was a done deal.

“One of my biggest decisions was talking with my assistant coach, which is my wife, because there's a lot of nights you go home and question whether you should still be coaching,” Ruff said. “… She's totally on board. She said, ‘You've got the disease, you've got to continue.’”

Ruff certainly hasn’t lost his touch behind the bench. A Jack Adams Award finalist as one of the NHL’s top three coaches, he lifted the Sabres out of last place in December to snap the 14-year playoff drought. And they were one shot away from a trip to the Eastern Conference Final.

• From April: How Lindy brought playoff hockey back to Buffalo

Those facts, among others, made this contract extension a “no-brainer,” as general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen put it.

Seasoned as Ruff is, he’s proven his ability to connect with a young team and win in the modern NHL. This season saw him incorporate Brian Galivan’s new strength and conditioning staff, which helped dictate practice schedules and intensity. During the second round, sensing physical and mental fatigue in his players, Ruff nixed morning skates entirely. And little slogans – 'JFG,' 'Share the morning coffee' – became rallying cries for the division champions.

“Some coaches can be stubborn, ‘This is the way I’ve done it always, this is the way we do it,’” Kekäläinen said. “He’s not like that at all. And to me, that shows a coach that still wants to get better and believes in the new technology and the science behind it and all that.

“… He’s not a spring chicken anymore, but he’s a student of the game.”

The Sabres plan to keep the entire assistant coaching staff, which Ruff credits for his productive relationship with the players. In team meetings, for example, Seth Appert and Marty Wilford will sometimes be the ones dissecting film and calling guys out for mistakes. The coaches, like Ruff, are at the arena at 6:30 a.m. and still hard at work at 2 a.m. on the plane, and their collective obsession with winning has the Sabres in good hands.

“Just like the players, when we ask the players to get better – and that was throughout all our meetings today – I'm going to ask the staff to do the same thing,” Ruff said. “We've got three months to make ourselves better, to pick up the areas that we need to improve. And let's go to work.”

Now, some more takeaways from Ruff’s and Kekäläinen’s end-of-season press conferences.

Tuch’s future

The biggest piece of offseason work for the Sabres is deciding on the future of alternate captain Alex Tuch, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

Tuch said that Kekäläinen restated the organization's interest in re-signing him during their exit meeting on Wednesday morning, which Kekäläinen later reiterated to the media.

“We’ve talked about it all season when these questions arise, that he’s been an important part of our success,” Kekäläinen said of Tuch. “He’s always given some of the most ice time of any of the forwards, killing penalties, playing power play, he’s a consistent goal scorer. He’s a valuable part of our team.

“Just like I’ve told him and I tell everybody in the same situation, we make our decision based on, ‘How can we make our team better?’ And we have to come to an agreement that this is the type of contract that, we can still make our team better. And hopefully we can do that.”

Tuch has been one of the most productive two-way players in the NHL during his time in Buffalo, routinely ranking among the league-leading forwards in takeaways, blocked shots and shorthanded points along with being a three-time 30-goal scorer.

The 30-year-old will be a top player on the market if he reaches free agency, but the Sabres are the only team with the ability to offer him an eighth year on his contract.

“I love it here,” Tuch said. “I’ve loved my time here. I’ve loved playing hockey here. I’m going to do whatever’s best for myself and my family. That’s all. That’s my power and consideration. Like I said, I don’t know how talks are going to proceed. I don’t know what they’re going to say, I don’t know the future. But my main priority is my family and where we’ll be, where my kids will grow up and who we surround my kids with.

“There’s a lot of aspects that go into it. It’s not just numbers, it’s not just where to play. There’s endless amounts of possibilities and options for a guy going into free agency. You don’t really know anything until everything’s laid out in front of you. So, I’m going to take some time in the next few weeks to really figure it out and see how it goes.”

More on the contract front

Kekäläinen offered comments on the following players who are either in need of new contracts or eligible for extensions this summer:

Zach Benson (RFA)

Benson’s relentless, hardworking style took center stage in the playoffs, where he scored five goals and nine points in 13 games.

The 20-year-old said he hasn’t given much thought to his next deal – but he’s got fans in both Ruff and Kekäläinen, who confirmed he’d like to sign Benson long-term.

Kekäläinen likened the situation to Josh Doan, another young, high-energy player who was rewarded with a seven-year extension in January.

“I’m excited,” Kekäläinen said. “That’s a great situation. That’s why we locked up Josh Doan early, because we saw the character, the competitiveness, and the potential for a leadership role long into the future. You want to lock guys like that up, that’s the same thing with Benson. I see him as a true core piece that fills all the boxes.”

Bowen Byram (1 year remaining)

Byram signed a two-year contract extension last summer, meaning he has one year left before he’d hit unrestricted free agency – an outcome the Sabres would love to avoid by signing him to an extension.

“Very important,” Kekäläinen said. “I said that to Bo Byram today, I’d like to lock him up for a long time. I think the top four of our defense is our driver, our engine. Their mobility, ability to move the puck, ability to support offense but also play good defensively. There’s a lot of untapped potential there, too. I think Bo’s still a young defenseman and he can get better.”

Michael Kesselring (RFA)

Kesselring dealt with injuries throughout his first season in Buffalo which prevented him from ever gaining any real traction in the lineup. But Kekäläinen and Ruff both said they still believe in the right-shot defenseman as he approaches restricted free agency.

“I’ve also seen how hard he works when he’s not in the lineup,” Kekäläinen said. “I’m usually in the gym in the afternoon when the players leave. Well, he was still there a couple times long after other players have left and going hard at it just to be ready whenever he was called upon. He had his chances late in the season here, too, to get back in the lineup and prove that he belongs. We have a lot of faith in his ability and that’s why he’s here.”

Sabres could move forward with 3 goalies

The status of Buffalo’s three-man goalie rotation was a frequent question early in the season – until it wasn’t.

As it turned out, the Sabres were fortunate to have all three of Alex Lyon, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Colten Ellis on their roster for the season. Injuries necessitated the use of all three in the first half. In the second half, the younger Ellis remained a positive presence while Lyon and Luukkonen shared the net (and stepped in admirably when called upon late).

Kekäläinen and Ruff were so happy with how the three-man tandem worked out, they could run it back next year. All three goalies remain under contract for 2026-27.

“The three goaltenders worked,” Ruff said. “I think we proved it that it worked. I know it's a new concept for a lot of people, but there was more than one team that was carrying three goaltenders for a great part of the year.”

The Sabres’ proximity to Rochester is also valuable in the sense that it allows them to quickly recall a forward or defenseman, meaning the roster space used for a third goaltender is less likely to place them in a bind.

Injury updates

The following injury updates came out of locker cleanout press conferences:

• Tage Thompson admitted to dealing with lower-back issues throughout the playoffs. “Nothing ridiculous, but just stuff from a long season,” he said.
• Owen Power sustained a grade-3 high-ankle sprain in Game 5 against Montreal but was able to play Games 6 and 7. He said he doesn’t expect the injury to impact his offseason training.
• Noah Ostlund sustained a lower-body during the third period of Game 5 against Boston and did not play again in the playoffs. He said he was hoping to return late in Round 3 and does not expect the injury to impact his offseason training.
• Logan Stanley was playing through an injury in the playoffs, general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen said. Kekäläinen said the injury was “a lot worse than [Stanley] let on.”
• Justin Danforth is “pretty close to being healthy” and should be ready for 2026-27 after a broken kneecap cost him nearly the entire season, Kekäläinen said. The injury required an initial surgery to fix the kneecap, then an additional operation to clean up cartilage that was still affecting him later in the season.