Lindy Ruff is entering his 25th year as an NHL head coach and 17 of those seasons have come behind the Buffalo Sabres bench. His storied career may be at a crossroads as he's tasked with ending the organization's NHL-record 14-year playoff drought, though.
Sabres owner Terry Pegula has attempted to remain patient — perhaps too patient given general manager Kevyn Adams' wholly unsuccessful five-year tenure leading the front office — but at some point you have to believe he'll grow tired of owning a franchise that's a league-wide laughingstock.
Ruff returned to Buffalo last year. The 65-year-old Canadian was a popular player for the Sabres from 1979 through 1989, and his first stint as the team's head coach featured 571 wins and an appearance in the 1999 Stanley Cup Final.
His second coaching tenure in the City of Good Neighbors didn't start on a promising note, though.
The Sabres posted a 36-39-7 record, which featured a 13-game losing streak from late November through mid-December that basically destroyed their postseason hopes before the calendar even flipped to 2025. They ultimately missed the playoffs by 12 points.
"I still remain very confident. I'm angry at myself for not getting the job done," Ruff told reporters after the season. "Early in the year, we had trouble with adversity. Later in the year, I think we dealt with high-pressure situations better."
It's fair to start wondering whether the franchise legend is still the right person for the job, however.
Just two of Ruff's last eight head coaching seasons, which dates back to time with the Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils, have resulted in a playoff berth. His teams have finished with a record below .500 four times during that span.
Players are starting to wonder whether the game has passed him by, too. In February, The Athletic released the results of a player survey that showed Ruff finished with the fifth-most votes when asked which NHL coach they'd least like to play for.
"I just think he's too old," one NHL player told The Athletic about Ruff. "I don't think he understands the game anymore. That's what I hear from the guys that play for him, that he just doesn't know what's going on most of the time."
None of this takes away from the 2006 Jack Adams Award winner's track record, of course.
Ruff ranks fifth in NHL history with 900 coaching wins. He could pass Barry Trotz for fourth on the all-time list with 15 more victories during the 2025-26 campaign.
His prior success doesn't help the Sabres win games now, though. And, if Buffalo's drought reaches 15 years, Pegula may have little choice but to make widespread organizational changes to dispel criticism he's begun to accept losing hockey as an annual tradition in Buffalo.
Getting let go wouldn't change Ruff's reputation in the 716. He'll always be remembered fondly for his days as a gritty team-first player and his ability to coach the Sabres to a Cup Final, even though they came up short against the Dallas Stars in controversial fashion.
Sometimes a change is necessary, however, and that'll probably be the case for Buffalo if the postseason remains out of reach once again.
Furthermore, if that's how things end with the Sabres, it's unlikely Ruff will get another head coaching opportunity in the NHL at this stage of his career.