Buffalo Sabres History: Jack Adams Award Winners

By Melissa Kania |

The National Hockey League will hold its annual year-end awards ceremony this year on June 24 in Las Vegas. The league will celebrates its top players in both on-ice and off-ice performances, rewarding representatives from the top scorers to the best goaltenders and everything in between. As the NHL continues to announce its nominees for the yearly awards, we’ll take a look back at the history of each award and when – if ever – a member of the Buffalo Sabres franchise has won it.

Some of these awards have been given out for 90 years, while others are newer. Regardless, it’s a true honor for any player to receive these awards.

Today, we’ll look at the NHL’s Jack Adams Award.

The Jack Adams Award is presented to the NHL head coach who contributes most to his team’s success. It doesn’t have to be the Stanley Cup-winning team, but can be a team that rallied during the regular season or just overall had a strong showing, thanks in part to their strong leadership behind the bench.

Members of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association submit their ballots at the end of the regular season, with the top three vote-getters being designated as finalists.

Historically, this award has been won twice by a head coach of the Buffalo Sabres.

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Most recently, Lindy Ruff took home the honor after the 2005-06 NHL season. That was the year the Buffalo Sabres had a record of 52-24-6 and registered 110 points.

They’d end up finishing the season third in the Eastern Conference and would go all the way to the conference final before falling to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Carolina Hurricanes.

But before Ruff won the honor, it was also won by Ted Nolan after the 1996-1997 season, during Nolan’s initial stint with the team. The Sabres went 40-30-12 (wins-losses-ties) that season, registering 92 points.

The Sabres finished that year third in the Eastern Conference and at the top of the Northeast Division, six points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins. They defeated the Ottawa Senators in the first round before falling to the Philadelphia Flyers – the Broad Street Bullies – in the second round.

This year, the finalists for the Jack Adams Award are Bob Hartley (CGY), Peter Laviolette (NSH) and Alain Vigneault (NYR).

For Hartley and Laviolette, this would be their first Jack Adams win. Vigneault won the trophy after the 2006-2007 season, when his Vancouver Canucks went 49-26-7 in the regular season.

Historically, only a handful of coaches have ever won the Jack Adams Award more than once in their career. Here’s the ones that have:

Jacques Demers (1987, 1988) – DET/DET
Jacques Lemaire (1994, 2003) – NJD/MIN
Pat Burns (1989, 1993, 1998) – MTL/TOR/BOS
Pat Quinn (1980, 1992) – PHI/VAN
Scotty Bowman (1977, 1996) – MTL/DET

Either way, there’s going to be some history set here. Never before in NHL history has a coach of the Calgary Flames, Nashville Predators OR New York Rangers won the Jack Adams Award.

Next: Johan Larsson: Player Review

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