Sabres Have Questions for Captains, Coaching

The Buffalo Sabres had a tough season in 1994 and left us asking many questions about the short term and long term futures of the franchise. With many 1 year contracts set to expire, the Sabres are again going into the offseason with holes among the on-ice leadership team as well as the bench boss.

GM Brandon Johnson signed Free Agent Head Coach Peter McNabb to a 1 year deal and placed the tall task of trying to steady a franchise that had taken an absolute nosedive over last offseason. While there were some small individual victories with some of the young players, it would be difficult to assess the job done in Buffalo as anything other than an unmitigated disaster.

It is unknown at this point whether the Sabres have reached out to McNab's camp for an extension going into 1995 but preliminary info coming out of Buffalo indicates that the Sabres might wait to see if a more experienced coach shakes loose after the Free Agency period begins.

In terms of the on-ice leadership group, the captain and alternates from the 1994 season are all up in the air. In 1994, the Sabres named then-Sabre veteran Curt Fraser the team captain. Shortly after that, Fraser was traded to the New Jersey Devils and only alternate captains Kjell Samuelsson and Dean Evason remained. Both Samuelsson and Evason were signed to 1 year deals and were not extended before the trade deadline. This means that going into the 1995 season, we could see a completely new leadership group for this team if the departing players and coaches are not offered new deals.

Considering the results from top to bottom, this could be a good thing for the Sabres going forward. As the team tries to build back up from the complete teardown it has just suffered, a new message has to be established and the right people need to be leading the charge.

-Buffalo, NY