Ralph Krueger's tenure as head coach of the Buffalo Sabres is officially over.
The team announced Wednesday morning that Krueger has been relived of his duties with the team after a 36-49-12 run in 97 games as head coach.
General manager Kevyn Adams also announced late Wednesday morning that assistant coach Don Granato will serve as the interim head coach on the Buffalo bench. Sportsnet hockey insider Elliotte Friedman was the first to report this shortly after the announcement of Krueger's firing.
In addition to Krueger's exit from the organization, the team has also relieved assistant coach Steve Smith of his duties.
With Granato shifting to become the interim head coach, director of player personnel Matt Ellis will step in behind the bench to serve as one of his interim assistant coaches. Meanwhile, player development coach and former NHL defenseman Dan Girardi will also step in behind the bench to replace Steve Smith.
The Sabres are currently staring at a 12-game winless streak that dates back to Feb. 25. It is the second-longest winless streak in franchise history, where Buffalo has gone 0-10-2 in that stretch. The Sabres also have the worst home record in the NHL this season at 2-10-2, currently riding a nine-game losing streak at KeyBank Center.
Overall this season, the Sabres are 6-18-4 in the NHL standings, sitting in last place with just 16 points and a points percentage of .286.
Here is where the Sabres stand in other areas of their game compared to the rest of the NHL:
- Ninth-best power play unit in the NHL (26.0%)
- 15th-best penalty kill unit in the NHL (79.7%)
- Lowest scoring team in the NHL (58 goals)
- Lowest goals per-game rate in the NHL (2.07)
- Eighth-most goals-against in the NHL (95)
- Third-highest goals-against rate in the NHL (3.39)
- Fifth-lowest shots per-game rate in the NHL (28.1)
- 13th-highest shots-against per-game rate in the NHL (30.8)
Krueger was hired as head coach of the Sabres in May of 2019 after serving as a chairman for the Southampton Football Club in the English Premier League for five years.
In his first season as head coach with the Sabres, Krueger led the team to a 30-31-8 record in 69 games before the season was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team finished the 2019-20 campaign in sixth place in the Atlantic Division standings, while missing out on the NHL's Return To Play plan by three points as the 12-seed in the Eastern Conference.
The 61-year-old had previous head coaching experience in the National Hockey League with the Edmonton Oilers during the 2012-13 lockout shortened season. in 48 games as head coach in Edmonton, Krueger led his team to a 19-22-7 record and 45 points in the standings.
Krueger's coaching track record dates back to 1989, when he served as a player-coach in the German second-tier league with Duisburger SV. He ended up becoming the head coach of VEU Feldkirch in the Austrian National League during the 1991-92 season, and went on to lead the team to five-straight league championships. In 1998, he was named as the head coach of the Swiss national men's ice hockey team, and he served in that position until 2010. During that time, he also served as a European Consultant for the Carolina Hurricanes from 2005 to 2010, which includes the team's Stanley Cup in 2006.
After his coaching tenure with the Oilers, Krueger went on to serve as a team consultant to Hockey Canada for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He also served as the head coach for Team Europe at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, where he led the European squad to a surprising second-place finish in the tournament. They ended up losing to Team Canada in the final round in a best-of-three series.
In case you missed any of Kevyn Adams' comments with the media, you can listen to the entire conference call below: