Per Emily Kaplan and Darren Dreger, Don Granato will have the interim tag removed from his title. He is now officially the 20th head coach of the Buffalo Sabres.
Granato did excellent work with the young guns on the Sabres roster this year and he will likely be tasked with an even younger roster in 2021-22.
Here's what we said about Granato back in April:
The first candidate is none other than Sabres interim coach Don Granato. Granato has followed a linear, upward trajectory though the coaching ranks. He has worked his way up from the USHL, ECHL and the AHL where he won the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award for “Most Outstanding Head Coach.… Granato was also an assistant coach for the Wisconsin Badgers (NCAA), St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks. Krueger brought him on as an assistant in 2019 to fill out his coaching staff. His 3-6-2 record since taking over the gig from Krueger isn’t going to wow unless it’s put in context of his predecessor who had lost 12 in a row and had six wins on the season. What Granato really has going for him is the progress seen with the young players on this team: Tage Thompson (2 goals, 1 assist in his last five games), Casey Mittlestadt (2 goals, 2 assists in his last five games, Henri Jokiharju (1 point, +1 in his past five games) and Rasmus Dahlin (1 goal, 3 assists in his last five games). Granato has preached confidence and offense to his players and the results have been infinitely more watchable than the low-event hockey Krueger employed. Regardless of whether he gets the job, his impact in raising the offensive ceiling and confidence of the young players has been a commendable achievement.
And here's an excerpt from my article in May:
Kevyn Adams stated that he wanted to go through the entire process of hiring a head coach to find out what it’s really like. Now he’s done that. Every day that ticks away without news of the Sabres interviewing veteran coaches indicates that Granato will be the choice to shepherd the young guys along as they make the transition from secondary players to core players. Sabres fans should embrace that possibility. Granato has proven in his small sample size that he has what it takes to maximize the potential of the young talent, and if nothing else, the Sabres would at least be entertaining to watch again under Don Granato. Some fans will likely make the claim that the Sabres took the cheap and easy route if they do indeed hire Granato – and that might be partially right – but it’s also possible they lucked into the right man at the right time. It certainly seems that way.
Overall, it seems the Sabres made the right hire for this particular moment in franchise history with roster being so young. Granato will have the kids play an uptempo, high-energy brand of hockey that should be entertaining (although maybe not immediately successful).
Congrats, Don.
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— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) June 29, 2021
This is a developing story and will be updated as more details are available