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Report: Buffalo Sabres waive Tim Kennedy, plan to buy him out

Image (1) timkennedy2-thumb-250x166-17273.jpg for post 14739

Remember last week when Sabres forward Tim Kennedy won his arbitration case against the team earning himself a $1 million salary for next season? Funny thing about that, while it wasn’t much of a raise for the young forward, it was apparently too much money for the Sabres’ blood and they’ve put him on waivers according to TSN’s Ryan Rishaug.

If the report holds up to be true, it’s a fascinating choice to make by the team because you wonder why, exactly, it’s happening. A buyout of Kennedy’s contract would only cost the Sabres $333,333 because he’s under 26 years-old. The NHL CBA states that buyouts of players under that age only cost the team 1/3 of the salary. James Mirtle relays an interesting take on the Kennedy situation during arbitration and one that brings some questions as to the Sabres motivations for this move.

Was told Kennedy’s camp offered to settle for $835,000 before arbitration but Sabres wanted deal for less than that. Now a potential buyout.

If there’s a lesson out of this, it’s apparently to not mess with Sabres general manager Darcy Regier. Kennedy got more money from the arbitrator than he was willing to settle for smacks of a situation that plays out with Regier saying something like, “You wanted arbitration and now you’ve got it. Enjoy not playing here next year.” I don’t know that Regier and the Sabres are this cutthroat and vengeful in reality, but it sure does make for fun speculation. I now picture Darcy Regier being like the character “Blake” in Glengarry Glen Ross.

As for Tim Kennedy’s take on the situation, his agent Allain Roy is not very pleased.

“It makes no sense to me,” said Allain Roy, Kennedy’s agent. “You’ll have to talk to Darcy on that one. It’s an enigma to everybody in hockey.”

“I don’t think this has ever happened in the history of the NHL,” Roy said. “We went through the process. Now they’re going through a process of their own to do what they feel is right. I think everybody was shocked.”

Certainly Roy and Kennedy are shocked, but if I had to guess, Darcy Regier was rather prepared for this as he’s not exactly a snap judgment sort of general manager.