I was going to voice my considerable opinion about Rick Pitino and the mess made of his life, and then the Sabres released Tim Kennedy. Since that's a little more home town, I thought I'd offer my two cents on that. Which of course, is considerably less than he wanted in arbitration.
For those unfamiliar, let me fill you in. Tim Kennedy (South Buffalo's own. . . blah blah blah) requested arbitration for his salary in the upcoming year. (He made $880K last year. NOT CHUMP CHANGE IN BUFFALO.) He was awarded $1 million. The Sabres weren't able to release him prior to this, because he didn't make the minimum contract amount needed for there to be no arbitration. (confused yet? There is a rule that you have to hit a salary minimum of $1.6 million in order to release a player with no arbitration ruling if he's restricted.) So they go to arbitration, he gets his cool million, and they decide to release him today. No one has really said why, but there are any number of reasons why it could be. The kid is 19 years old. He's 5'10" and maybe 160lbs soaking wet. (I'm 5'6", and in 3 inch heels, he was just a shade taller than I was, if you don't count the curls on his head.) Scored 10 goals last year. And was making $880,000 in the blue collar town he grew up in. He didn't play enough to deserve arbitration, and I'd be surprised if going to arbitration at this point in his career endeared him to some of his more veteran colleagues. (which is just about everyone on the team.) He wound up getting $120K more than if he had played out his contract, which means by the time his agent took his cut, and the IRS took theirs, he'd see about 60 grand. Was it worth it? Probably not, unless it was his intention to piss off the Sabres so they would release him. EXCEPT, this really doesn't do well for his image with the rest of the league if he were to care about that sort of thing. It's one thing to be Sidney Crosby and go to arbitration if the Pens weren't paying you your due. But Tim Kennedy is literally a no name in the grand scheme of the NHL, who got a mite big for his britches in my mind. Again, my opinion literally means nothing, and Tim Kennedy just got paid out a third of his contract for doing nothing, so he definitely comes out ahead in this deal. And for all we know, he could clear waivers and be sitting there without a team. $880,000 looks mighty good when you don't have a team to play on, doesn't it? Guess we'll see how this one plays out in the days to come.
*See, it's not all football!
I cannot wait to hear Darcy's comments on this one. I'm not so disappointed about them dumping Kennedy...and really, I couldn't care less about him being from Buffalo, I forget about it half the time. The thing that gets me about this whole thing is it completely goes against what the Sabres represent: they don't eat contracts. Now, this isn't a contract that they made; it was decided by an arbitrator, yes. But in the case of "young talent" especially, this isn't the kind of thing they would just walk away from...especially not at $1 million!!!
ReplyDeleteThere are three possible reasons that I can draw up: (1) the arbitration decision, which you outlined. (2) By eating his contract, Kennedy will only count $167,000 against the cap as opposed to the $1 million that it would if they kept him (that's if they do have to waive him, which we'll find out later today). So if they Sabres do have plans to sign other players (don't laugh), then this gives them some more cap space. And finally, (3) Kennedy represents something that the Sabres have a plethora of: small, undersized, weak forwards with "potential." I don't think I need to bring up Mark Recchi's name here...but I guess I just did (no idea what I'm talking about?! See game #3 in the 2010 playoffs vs. Boston). Maybe this is the organizations way of trying to get away from that and Kennedy just happened to be the sacrificial lamb.
By the way, lost in all of this is an excellent signing by the Sabres: Shaone Morrisonn. He's the gritty, hard-nosed, shot-blocking defenseman that Buffalo has lacked since Jay McKee was sent packing. A great move by Darcy; consider Lydman (with Leopold's signing) and Tallinder replaced!!!