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Darcy Regier Talks About Waiving Kaleta

Before Saturday’s game against Anaheim, Sabres general manager Darcy Regier spoke to the media about the decision to waive Patrick Kaleta. Here are some of the highlights from that discussion.

The team’s reasoning on waving Kaleta

When we looked at where the league is, especially in my case coming out of three hearings, two for Pat and one for John Scott, and where Patrick’s game is currently, I think there is a significant amount of work that he will have to do to redesign his game in order to give him an opportunity to play. When we talked about it internally, we felt that if it was with us, that had to take place in Rochester. Part of that was, if we are going to send him to Rochester we should consider looking at trading him, which we did. Not being able to do that, waivers was the next thing which we did today.

On whether the decision helps the organization save face.

Part of this is to be able to put the organization in a position to play and compete and you don’t want to be under the thumb of the National Hockey League and I think we are a little bit. I think in fairness to Patrick, hopefully out of this one of the opportunities he gets is working on his game and creating some space beyond how they currently view him and how they’ll view him in the future. I have no question about his ability. I really believe he can change. He’s 27 and he has the ability to do that and be an effective player in the NHL.

On how Kaleta took the news

He took it professionally but he’s a heart and soul guy and he’s hurt and I understand that.

On the likelihood of another team claiming him off waivers

My best guess is that’s probably 50/50. There’s injuries around the league and he has a contract for next year as well. It will be an individual situation for each team.

The full audio of the interview is below

Darcy Regier 11-2

Talking Points