Eric Mestery Retires From Americans

[Stay-Puft]

Here's a link to the story.

http://www.amshockey.com/news/article.src?ID=4250

[3rebels]

A very classy move from an obviously classy player!!

[Raider Believer]

A very classy move from an obviously classy player!!

Good luck Eric. Watched you play and always thought you were a Corey Cross type of d-man.

[Brandonite]

I wonder if him retiring has anything to do with all the haters he had on whlfans. I never seen him enough to give a statement on how I thought he played, but I know he took alot of heat on this website between Lethbridge fans and Tri-Cities fans. But considering he was a 2nd round pick to the Caps and gave up a **** load of University money by calling it quits 1 year early says alot about the kid character wise

[metalrules]

I won't deny that it is a smart move to call it quits. This kid had trouble, it did not matter where he played. He played like he did not have the drive the whole time he was in Lethbridge. Wish he would have figured it out earlier and given some other player a chance to play in his spot.

[Stay-Puft]

In my opinion, when you are playing in the WHL championship as a 19 year old defenceman and you are benched, becoming a 3rd-line d-man, for a 16-year old called up at the end of the year then there is an issue, whether it was something personal, playing ability or with the coaching staff. My guess is that since he wasn't going to be signed to a contract to move up the ranks and the team didn't want to use one of the 20-year old spots for a 2nd or 3rd line d-man then there wasn't much of an option. The newspaper article stated that he didn't want to be traded so there appears that there was only 1 option and that was to retire.