Head Coaches of the Buffalo Sabres

The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. They are members of the Northeast Division in the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). There have been 14 head coaches of the Buffalo Sabres since the team's debut in the 1970–71 NHL season.
Punch Imlach, Scotty Bowman, Marcel Pronovost and Roger Neilson have all made it to the Hockey Hall of Fame, while Lindy Ruff, Ted Nolan and Scotty Bowman have all won the Jack Adams Award, an honor given annually to the National Hockey League coach "adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success". The first head coach, Hall of Famer Punch Imlach, has the lowest winning percentage of any Sabres coach, with a .370 winning percentage during his 120-game tenure.
He is followed by Craig Ramsay who coached the team to a .412 record from 1986 to 1987. Floyd Smith has the best coaching record in terms of winning percentage, with a .503 record, during his term from 1974 to 1977. He is followed by his successor, Hall of Famer Marcel Pronovost, who coached the Sabres to a .611 record from 1977 to 1978.
The Sabres have made two appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals, losing four games to two against the Philadelphia Flyers in 1975, under Smith, and again four to two against the Dallas Stars in 1999, under Ruff. Ruff has led the Sabres into the playoffs from 1997 to 2001 and again from 2005 to 2007. The Sabres did not make it into the playoffs in the 2008 season.
==Key==
# 	Number of coachesA running total of the number of coaches of the Sabres. Thus any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
GC 	Games Coached
W 	Wins
L 	Loses
T 	Ties
Win%	Winning percentage
* 	Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame
</noinclude>
==Coaches==
# 	Name 	Term 	Regular Season	Regular Season	Regular Season	Regular Season	Regular Season	Playoffs	Playoffs	Playoffs	Playoffs	Awards 	Reference
# 	Name 	Term 	GC 	W 	L 	T 	Win% 	GC 	W 	L 	T 	Awards 	Reference
1 	Punch Imlach 	1970–1972 	120 	32 	63 	25 	.370 	– 	– 	– 	– 	 	
2 	Floyd Smith 	1972 	1 	0 	1 	0 	.000 	– 	– 	– 	– 	 	
3 	Joe Crozier 	1972–1974 	192 	77 	80 	35 	.492 	6 	2 	4 	0 	MJHL Second All-Star Team (1948) MJHL First All-Star Team (1949) QHL Second All-Star Team (1954) QHL First All-Star Team (1957) Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame	
— 	Floyd Smith 	1974–1977 	240 	143 	61 	36 	.503 	32 	16 	16 	0 	 	
4 	Marcel Pronovost	1977–1978 	104 	52 	29 	23 	.611 	8 	3 	5 	0 	 	
5 	Billy Inglis 	1978–1979 	56 	28 	18 	10 	.589 	3 	1 	2 	0 	First All-Star Team Defense (1960, 1961) Second All-Star Team Defense (1958, 1959) 	Billy Inglis took over as an interim coach for the rest of the 1978-1979 season
6 	Scotty Bowman 	1979–1980 	80 	47 	17 	16 	.688 	13 	8 	5 	0 	Jack Adams Award 	
7 	Roger Neilson 	1980–1981 	80 	39 	20 	21 	.619 	8 	4 	4 	0 	Roger Neilson Memorial Award 	
8 	Jimmy Roberts 	1981–1982 	45 	21 	16 	8 	.556 	– 	– 	– 	– 	 	
— 	Scotty Bowman 	1982–1985 	240 	124 	82 	34 	.588 	22 	9 	13 	0 	Jack Adams Award 	
9 	Jim Schoenfeld 	1985–1986 	43 	19 	19 	5 	.500 	– 	– 	– 	– 	 	
— 	Scotty Bowman 	1986–1986 	49 	21 	25 	3 	.459 	– 	– 	– 	– 	 	
10	Craig Ramsay 	1986–1987 	68 	25 	37 	6 	.412 	– 	– 	– 	– 	 	
11	Ted Sator 	1987–1989 	160 	75 	67 	18 	.525 	11 	3 	8 	0 	 	
12	Rick Dudley 	1989–1991 	188 	85 	82 	31 	.535 	12 	4 	8 	0 	 	
13	John Muckler 	1991–1995 	268 	125 	109 	34 	.530 	27 	11 	16 	0 	 	
14	Ted Nolan 	1995–1997 	164 	73 	72 	19 	.503 	12 	5 	7 	0 	Jack Adams Award 	
15	Lindy Ruff 	1997–present	902 	438 	334 	130 	.558 	98 	52 	36 	0 	Jack Adams Award 	
==References==
Category:Buffalo Sabres
Buffalo Sabres head coaches
Category:National Hockey League lists