Amerks head coach Seth Appert leaves Rochester to join Buffalo Sabres staff
The Rochester Amerks are losing head coach Seth Appert to the Buffalo Sabres.
The 49-year-old Appert has been promoted to the parent Buffalo Sabres to serve as one of new coach Lindy Ruff’s assistants.
“One of my top priorities over the last few weeks has been finalizing the hires and roles of the coaching staff,” Ruff told the Sabres website. “After conversations with Seth, he reaffirmed what I already knew - he is ready for this opportunity. As we move into next season, I am thrilled with the staff we have assembled, and the work has already begun to prepare for training camp and the entirety of the season ahead.”
It is a well-deserved advancement for Appert who came to Rochester in the difficult Covid season of 2020. The Amerks made the playoffs in the last three seasons of his tenure as he compiled a record of 123-94-22-10.
Last year was the highlight for Appert as he guided Rochester to the Eastern Conference finals where it lost in six games to eventual Calder Cup champion Hershey.
This season, a late push enabled the Amerks to finish in a first-place tie with Cleveland atop the North Division with 88 points. The Amerks lost out on a tiebreaker, and then were defeated by Syracuse in a tight five-game series which ended their season Friday night.
Appert had never coach in professional hockey before being hired to lead the Amerks. He spent three years as a head coach for the U.S. National Team Development Program and then 11 seasons as head coach for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a fine Division I college hockey program. That came on the heels of nine years as an assistant at the University of Denver where he was a part of two Division I national championship teams.
“Seth should be immensely proud of the culture he has built in Rochester and the success that has come with it,” Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams said. “While his addition to the NHL coaching staff is a loss in Rochester, there is no doubt he has earned this position. Under his leadership, the Amerks have had tremendous results as a team, and he has also played a significant role in the development of a number of NHL players. We will begin a search for his replacement in Rochester immediately.”
Appert has coached several members of the current Sabres roster including Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka, Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen, Mattias Samuelsson, and he has been preparing top prospects such as Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen, among many others, down in Rochester.
Obviously, he’ll have expertise in training camp and Ruff will lean on him for guidance in figuring out which players can stay with the Sabres and which need to go back to Rochester for more seasoning next year.
“I believe that success or failure experiences you go through help define you and shape you if you’re willing to learn from them and grow for them,” Appert said Friday night after his team lost 5-2 to Syracuse. “Adversity usually fuels the most growth and that is the secret sauce of development as a human, not just as a hockey player.
“You go through harder things and you go through miserable things. You go through failures and you look in the mirror and you decide to attack areas that you have to improve to grow from the experiences you went through. And that’s what these young guys need to do.”
Appert will be joining a staff that includes returning assistants Mike Bales, Matt Ellis, and Marty Wilford; video coach Justin White; and on-ice rehab and skating instructor Mike Ansell. It is expected that Appert will replace Ellis behind the bench on game nights.
Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out every other Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Seth Appert joins Buffalo Sabres coaching staff, leaves Rochester
