Buffalo Sabres hire Phil Housley as new head coach

The Buffalo Sabres were clearly waiting to hire a new head coach, but the move to hire Phil Housley was quick.

There weren’t many offseason vacancies in the NHL, but after the Florida Panthers made a hire the Buffalo Sabres were the lone team without a head coach. They were reportedly waiting to talk to assistant coaches for each of the Stanley Cup finalists, and with the Penguins clinching Sunday night a move was likely to come quickly.

Phil Housley has been an assistant for the Predators for the last four seasons, for two head coaches, and he reportedly met with Sabres general manager Jason Botterill in Nashville on Monday.

Housley, an accomplished defenseman himself over a long career in the NHL, helped Nashville’s blue line be one of the best in the league. Having high-caliber pupils like P.K. Subban, Shea Weber, Roman Josi and Ryan Ellis helps, but Housley went to Nashville on the heels of leading Team USA to a gold medal in World Juniors, and clearly has coaching chops.

The Sabres agree, with the announcement of Housley as their new head coach on Thursday.

Housley was a top-10 pick by Buffalo in 1982 (sixth overall), and he spent the first eight seasons of his 21-year playing career there. So the specter of past ties to the Sabres’ organization is present, at least as a secondary factor if all other things were equal among candidates.

Rasmus Ristolainen had a promising 2016-17 season at age-22, with 45 points (six goals, 39 assists) as a Sabres’ blue-liner. But after accounting for Jake McCabe’s 20 points, the other five most-used defenseman on the team combined for just 49 points.

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Housley is the right coach to coax the best out of Buffalo’s defensemen. But Botterill’s primary task, as the new general manager, is to bolster the talent level of the group this offseason.