Martin Marincin On Waivers

We all thought this could happen, but then it didn’t. Then the Leafs seemed to do fine without him last night and now he’s gone. Martin Marincin is now on waivers.

Normally there’s nothing surprising about a team waiving a seventh defenseman, and waivers have certainly been active at this point in the season, but Marincin has achieved ‘darling’ status among stats gurus and that makes him an interesting case. Ian Tulloch explored a lot of that love here, and I inadvertently stumbled into appreciating Marincin here.

Anyway, there is plenty of reason to be torn on this decision to waive Marincin. On one hand it avoids a Frank Corrado situation where we spend months wondering why he isn’t playing. It allows guys like Borgman, Rosen, and possibly Dermott a chance to see time in the lineup, which makes sense since Marincin does not seem like he’s part of the future given that he was barely part of the present, and in the event that Marincin is claimed, he’ll free up another player contract for the Leafs to use, which can only be a good thing.

Counter to that, despite what your eye test told you, Marincin was doing well when he played. He should be considered an asset, but if he doesn’t have the trust of the coaching staff or management team, what can we do? The fact that he wasn’t able to be traded as an asset makes me wonder if he’ll get claimed, but you’d have to imagine there is at least one analytics guy banging on the door to his GM’s office right now shouting “CLAIM MARINCIN!!!”

So that’s that. We’ll see if Marincin is a Marlie tomorrow or if he’s somewhere else.

It’s also interesting to note that Calvin Pickard has been put on waivers. I mention this because here’s the case for trading for him, now he can be had for free. Tomorrow at noon will be an interesting time. Until then, comfort your local hockey nerd.