Dmitri Kalinin hitting free agency

From John Vogl of the Buffalo News:

It was March 4 in Philadelphia when Dmitri Kalinin’s eight-year run with the Sabres came to an end. He was skating laps around Wachovia Center, and coach Lindy Ruff was in his face screaming, “Show some [expletive] passion!” Sure, the mistake-prone defenseman likely deserved it, but with unrestricted free agency coming up, why would he go through it again?

Agent Jay Grossman said by phone last week he had not had one discussion with the Sabres, who reportedly aren’t interested in Kalinin, either. It was clearly time to split ways, something that’s been obvious for sometime. The 1998 first-round pick can start anew elsewhere. Hopefully, the quiet and gracious guy can live up to his potential there.

Here is the short entry.

Kalinin will certainly attract interest on the free agent market. He can skate and move the puck, those are two attributes which are of vital importance in today’s NHL. It appears this split will make both sides happy.