The Buffalo Sabres set off some more fireworks this morning when the news broke of a big front office hire. Elliotte Friedman was first to report that they are hiring Sam Ventura away from the Pittsburgh Penguins. He’ll serve the role of VP of hockey research and strategy.
In a corresponding move, Jason Nightingale will move into the scouting department completely as assistant director of amateur scouting.
Ventura has been with the Penguins organization since 2015. He was part of that front office with current Sabres’ associate general manager Jason Karmanos.
After serving a few years in the Penguins analytics department, he received a promotion just last year to director of hockey operations and hockey research.