28. There are interviews you remember. One came late in the 2014-15 season, a nightmare year for the Buffalo Sabres. Down 3-1 to Toronto, they came back to win 4-3. I interviewed Mike Weber after that game, and the next day, Doug MacLean told me he was struck by how passionate the defenceman was about winning in a year the organization was tanking.
“I do remember that,” Weber said Monday, one week after a knee injury ended his professional career. “I’m a kid from Beaver County, PA, half an hour out of Pittsburgh. Told I’d never make it, I worked hard to make it. I took such pride in the jersey. I cared so much, I was willing to die — for a lack of a better word — to represent the organization properly. Every single guy cared so much that year…everyone wants to be on a winner and we understood what the organization was trying to do. They got (Jack) Eichel, and he’s a huge part of what they will be. But our jobs were on the line, our careers were on the line. We took pride in the emblem, but it tested a lot of the players. It definitely made me stronger.”
29. Taken 57th overall in the 2006 Draft, Weber played 351 NHL games with Buffalo and Washington. He spent 2016-17 at AHL Iowa, and started this season with Frolunda in the Swedish league.
“I was hurt last year, but trained all off-season to give it another shot,” he said. “I love hockey and would do whatever to keep playing. But the knee couldn’t hold up. I couldn’t battle and compete like I had to.”
Weber missed the birth of his second child after being traded to Washington. The boy was born earlier than expected, and he couldn’t get back to Buffalo on time. He and wife Janine are expecting their third child in March, and were prepared to do it overseas. “She told me, ‘You did all you can do, gave it everything you had. Let’s go home.’”
Best memory? “Hearing my name called at the draft, walking down to the floor, seeing Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff, telling them, ‘I won’t let you guys down, I will do my best to be here.’ Getting the phone call to make my NHL debut, after only nine AHL games. My third year, I played the whole year in the minors. That reminded me nothing is easy, nothing is given and you have to keep grinding to be better.” He paused. “I was always appreciative of opportunity. I left it all out there and have no regrets. It was a fun ride.”
30. Weber played junior at OHL Windsor and is thrilled Trevor Letowski offered a role in his coaching staff. It is a career he intends to pursue. “The last few years, I’ve been writing down things I liked. At Iowa, it was almost a player/coach role, helping out with penalty kill meetings and making sure younger players knew what to expect.” Maybe someday he will cross paths again with the young man who sat next to him in the Frolunda dressing room. That was likely number one draft pick Rasmus Dahlin. “Great kid. You guys will all find that out pretty shortly.”