Written on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 4:44pm by Kevin | 3 Comments

Vacancy in Mair’s Office

What’s a person to make of this?

Adam Mair being waived seems to be a two-pronged issue to me.  First, I can’t believe he went over Matt Ellis or Nathan Paetsch.  I tend to think Mair is a better hockey player than Paetsch, but perhaps the versatility of someone who plays defense and can fill in at wing in a pinch was the differentiator for Paetsch.  Ellis, perhaps, is a bit better defensively than Mair, but they seemed kind of interchangeable.  The difference to me was that Mair was always willing to drop the gloves and I’m not sure I ever saw Ellis mix it up.

Second, to what is this a precursor?  If it’s a way to delay making a move on a defenseman and carrying eight while hoping someone might, at some point, feel like trading for one of your guys is possibly not the best idea.  Still, I find it hard to believe an acquisition is coming because that would still put the Sabres one player over the roster limit when Lydman comes back.  So perhaps it is a move that will allow Buffalo to activate Lydman while trying to buy some time to see who gets moved in a trade from the back end.

Honestly, I am too surprised by the move to make much sense of it.  I would be moderately surprised if he cleared waivers because he makes so little money and is certainly a solid “character guy.”

Here’s to ya’, Mairsy.

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3 Comments

  1. Wolf says:
    November 9, 2009 at 4:56 pm

    All I can say to this is “What the fuck?” The only thing I can think is that Mair’s hip injury was worse than they let on. Barring that, this makes no sense to me at all.

    Reply
  2. John Bigenwald says:
    November 9, 2009 at 5:13 pm

    Adam Ellis, Nathan Mair… On the ice no difference. Was he a leader in the clubhouse?? Really I don’t know. He’s been there long enough, he should be — and if he was then this better be a precursor to something important.

    If he wasn’t then Mair becomes another name for an impressionable 12 year old kid to put on a website in 30 years (or whatever they have then) demanding an open thread be names after him.

    BTW — I’m expecting a Morris Titanic Open Thread (TM) or I’m canceling my subscription!

    Reply
  3. Wolf says:
    November 9, 2009 at 5:28 pm

    I just listened to Darcy’s press conference and now I get it. He said two things that were cryptic but explained everything. First, he said that Mair was in a contract year but wasn’t getting ice time and that wasn’t fair to him and hopefully he could get a shot with another team (paraphrasing). Later on, when asked about what happens if he clears waivers, at 3:05 in the clip on the Sabres website, Darcy says the following, “…depending what happens tomorrow, there may be no changes at all. He may remain with us and be a part of the team as he is right now. So, nothing’s changed, pending noon time tomorrow.”

    Those two things tell me that Mair is unhappy with his playing time and that Darcy has no intent to play him, and that they couldn’t trade him so this is their way of cutting him loose to pursue other options. Just my two cents.

    Reply

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