Rick Tocchet just coached Arizona four seasons. ©2021, Dan Hickling

Report: Sabres GM Kevyn Adams to interview two coaching candidates

General manager Kevyn Adams plans to interview Bruce Boudreau and Rick Tocchet for the Buffalo Sabres’ head coaching position, according to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun.

Don Granato, who served as interim coach after the Sabres fired Ralph Krueger on March 17, remains a candidate for the permanent job, according to LeBrun.

Adams has said he wants to talk to “a lot” of people about the position. He has never hired an NHL coach.

Boudreau, 66, has enjoyed regular-season success with the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild. But his teams have stumbled in the playoffs, losing in the opening round six out of 10 times.

The Capitals lost in the opening round of the playoffs in 2010 after a 121-point regular season earned them the Presidents’ Trophy.

Boudreau, the 2007-08 Jack Adams winner as NHL Coach of the Year, hasn’t coached since the Wild fired him last season.

He won the Kelly Cup coaching the Mississippi Sea Wolves to the ECHL championship in 1998-99. He also won the Calder Cup with the Hershey Bears, the Capitals’ AHL affiliate, in 2005-06.

Tocchet, 57, recently parted ways with the Arizona Coyotes after a four-year run in which they made the playoffs once. He also coached the Tampa Bay Lightning just under two seasons.

While Tocchet has only cracked the postseason once in six NHL seasons, he won two Cups as an assistant in Pittsburgh. He has already drawn interest from the expansion Seattle Kraken, according to TSN’s Darren Dreger.

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