BUFFALO – In one sense, the Sabres believe keeping Adam Mair is a good thing.

Since Mair cleared waivers Tuesday, the Sabres still possess a gritty, team-first veteran whose presence increases the forward depth.

That said, the Sabres have a player they couldn’t trade or give away. While Mair will remain with Buffalo and won’t go to the minors, coach Lindy Ruff said, he’s still the team’s 13th forward, a spare part until the Sabres suffer an injury.

“It doesn’t mean he’s not going to play,” Ruff said Tuesday at the Amherst Pepsi Center after the Sabres, losers of two straight, prepared for tonight’s tilt against the Edmonton Oilers at HSBC Arena. “But I think that’s always a difficult situation to deal with.”

Ruff doesn’t like keeping extra players on the roster. When Toni Lydman returns from his groin injury, the Sabres will have three.

“It’s not healthy,” he of his team’s roster situation. “Most teams have one guy and possibly two. You just bring somebody up from the minors to play. We think we’ve been lucky so far with injuries.”

Mair, who keeps his permanent residence here, wanted to remain with the Sabres and said he has no ill feelings toward the club.

“I’m here. I’m part of the team,” said Mair, a Sabre since July 2002. “Nothing has changed my approach to the game, my approach to the team, the guys. I’m here to be a piece of the puzzle and help this team win hockey games.”

Mair said he’s grown close to the city, the community and the club.

“You want to work at that common goal (with) the guys, and that’s getting back to the playoffs and trying to win a Stanley Cup,” he said. “You put in so much time over the years that you don’t want that time to kind of feel wasted. You want to see that bear fruit.”

The Sabres’ decision to waive Mair on Monday boiled down to a numbers game. Mair never regained his old spot as a fourth-line center or winger after undergoing offseason hip surgery and missing most of training camp.

Buffalo signed Mike Grier late in the summer. Rookie Tim Kennedy emerged. Matt Ellis and Patrick Kaleta further cemented their places. A regular since his arrival from Los Angeles, Mair, 30, has played only three of the 14 games this year.

“It’s a tough situation,” Ruff said. “We made some decisions. We like the way Kennedy’s playing. With Mike Grier on the right side and Pat Kaleta playing the way he played, it makes the decision tough.”

Ruff thought there was a small chance another team would claim Mair.

“You just don’t see much movement going on,” he said. “I thought maybe (Mair would get claimed). Maybe was wrong.”

Mair said spending a day on waivers wasn’t stressful.

“The situation’s out of your control,” he said. “There’s no need to worry about it or feel stressed about something like that. You try to focus on things that you can control, and that’s what I do on the ice, off the ice to become the best player I can be.”

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With temperatures reaching the 60s, the Sabres practiced on some bad ice Monday at HSBC Arena. Ruff eventually ended practice early and had the team do an off-ice bike ride, which he found “more advantageous than staying on the ice.”

Temperatures here are supposed to remain in the 50s through the week, so the Sabres could encounter poor ice conditions tonight and Friday when they host Calgary.

“I think when you get weather like this this time of year, it just affects our ice,” Ruff said. “There’s nothing they can really do about it. You deal with it. … (Crews are) going to do the best job to give us the best ice, and for the most part they’ve been able to do that.”

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The Sabres rarely play the Oilers. This is only the teams’ fifth meeting since 2002-03 and Edmonton’s second visit since then, the first since 2006-07.

Ruff said the unfamiliarity makes the team increase its film study.

“A lot of times the players aren’t familiar with personnel,” he said. “I think of (Sam) Gagner, Andrew (Cogliano), the likes of those players. Special teams, you don’t get a real good handle because you haven’t played them that much.”