Just over a month after the hiring of Jason Botterill to be Buffalo’s General Manager, former NHL defenceman Phil Housley was hired to be the Sabres’ next coach. He will replace Dan Bylsma, who was fired alongside former GM Tim Murray following the end of the season back in April.

Housley was a first round pick of the Sabres back in 1982. What ensued was a Hall-Of-Fame career including over 1200 points in over 1400 games for eight different franchises. There would assuredly have been some Norris Trophy mentions here had he not been playing in the same era as guys named Bourque, Coffey, Chelios, and Leetch.

Following his playing career, Housley found himself as part of USA Hockey with both the junior team and the World Championship squad. In more recent years, he had been an assistant coach for the Nashville Predators. It takes talent to perform well, but the Nashville blue line was probably the best in the league under his tutelage.

Fantasy Impact

While his duties will cover the entire team, it’s pretty clear this hiring is, in large part, an effort to remedy the Buffalo blue line. As mentioned in the link above for Botterill, the issues with the Sabres start and end with their rearguards. They have over $16 million tied up next year between Rasmus Ristolainen, Zach Bogosian, Josh Gorges, and Jake McCabe, and depending who you talk to, there’s not a top-pair defenceman among any of them. After Kevin Shattenkirk, the free agent market has very few viable options under the age of 30. If this team is to improve the blue line, aside from minor signings, it’s likely either via trade or in-house (no pun intended, but that did work out very well).

It’s a question, then, what Housley can do with the current blue line to improve their shot metrics. They allow way too many, and have for years, which has a negative effect on the goals against average of the goaltenders. Should Housley be able to improve their blue line in this regard, the direct effect should be improved goaltending numbers.

There is also the issue of the power play. Right now, Ristolainen is really the only viable option they have to run the top unit. That is good news for the Ristolainen keeper and dynasty owners. If they decide to bring in another puck-mover, however, it should make owners a bit nervous, as he's not tied to any particular player on this roster.

The big takeaway here is that if the new coach can get this team, and specifically the defencemen, to play tighter in their own end, and quickly transitioning out of their zone, the biggest fantasy impact may be in goal. Unless significant moves are made with the depth of the roster, however, the size of the impact may not be that large.