BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres have signed Lindy Ruff to a two-year contract extension, the team announced on Wednesday.

Ruff, 66, is a finalist for the Jack Adams Award after leading the Sabres back to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. After a 15-plus season run as the team’s head coach from 1997-2013, Ruff returned for a second stint as the team’s coach ahead of the 2024-25 season. That season was a trying one, as the team finished seventh in the Atlantic Division with 79 points.

Just one year later, the Sabres improved their point total to 109 points and won the division. In early December, the Sabres were in last place in the Eastern Conference and fired general manager Kevyn Adams, replacing him with Jarmo Kekäläinen. Ruff remained as the head coach and led the Sabres to the best record in the NHL over the next five months. Buffalo’s season ended on Monday with an overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens in the second round of the playoffs. Not even 48 hours later, the Sabres answered one of the biggest questions of their offseason.

“He is so good at pushing us,” Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said. “That’s the main thing. There’s no time for effing around; you have to be uncomfortable every day. I think that’s what really helped us as a group. We took care of the other stuff, but he made sure he pushed us every day, and I think that brought us a lot of success for sure.”

Ruff, who spent a decade with the Sabres as a player, is the winningest coach in Sabres history and ranks fourth all-time among NHL coaches with 950 wins. This season, he managed to blend the Sabres’ rush-heavy offensive style with a more detailed approach to the defensive side of the game. And in the process, he did what he set out to do in bringing playoff hockey back to Buffalo.

“When I took the job, I thought, number one, I wanted these guys to like being a Buffalo Sabre,” Ruff said. “I think they like being a Sabre, and I think they made our city proud. It wasn’t the result we wanted, and to a man, they’re all disappointed. But they gave them everything they had in the can.”

The Sabres still have some questions to answer about the rest of the coaching staff. Buffalo’s power play was an issue all season, so time will tell if Ruff makes any adjustments to his bench. But when he was nominated for the Jack Adams Award, he was quick to deflect credit to his staff, saying the award was a reflection of the team effort behind the bench.