Well, this is how you blow it up.
The Buffalo Sabres made major changes Wednesday morning when they announced the firings of both general manager Darcy Regier and head coach Ron Rolston. The club also announced that Pat LaFontaine would be named president of hockey operations, while Ted Nolan would assume head coaching duties. Sabres owner Terry Pegula made the announcement Tuesday morning, and he said he informed Regier and Rolston of their fates on Tuesday night.
LaFontaine said that he would start his search for a new GM immediately. He says there’s a short list of candidates he has his eye on, but he declined to say who was on that list.
Nolan will take over, for now at least, in an interim capacity.
“He comes in as a very qualified man who’s done a lot of great things in this game,” LaFontaine said of Nolan.
LaFontaine has very limited experience in an NHL front office. He served a short stint as an adviser to the owner for the New York Islanders back in 2006, but that didn’t last long. Nolan, however, has plenty of head coaching experience — with the Sabres even. He’s been the head coach of both the Sabres and Islanders, with his most recent experience coming on Long Island. He took over as head coach of the Sabres in 1995 and won the Jack Adams award as the NHL’s best head coach in 1997. He coached the Islanders for two seasons as well after taking over in 2006.
