we have enough d-men but the value is about fine

I thought Ruhwedel was good last year, no?

Yes big Ruhwedel fan here and I honestly rather have another defenseman traded. The right side of the defense is a position of strength right now so trading Ruhwedel isn't as big of a blow and opens up a much needed roster spot.

Boston has 8 NHL d men under contract. None waiver exempt. They don’t need more.

Ruhwedel is probably one of the best VALUE 3rd pairing dmen in the league. He's as reliable as they come. The issue is they signed Rutta, so something will have to give at some point. Either Friedman or Ruhwedel will probably have to be moved eventually.

There’s no reason to move Ruhwedel. Smith and OConnor are waiver exempt and would be best off playing top pair and top line in the Ahl than being healthy scratches and healthy scratching POJ.

Yes - he was great. Which is why the Rutta signing was so awful

In reality, Smith and O'Connor should not be playing in the AHL...at least not for any extended amount of time. Did you read my description? Smith and Joseph can alternate stretches of games during the season. Nothing wrong with an internal competition. Whomever shows to be the most reliable, gets on the ice come playoff time.

I’d rather they play in the Ahl and get quality minutes then be healthy scratches in the NHL. Yes I ready your description and it makes no sense. Why would you want to scratch any of the 3 and have them waste away in the press box? Why would you throw away a good veteran defensive defenseman just so you can healthy scratch a rookie that you could just have playing meaningful minutes in the AHL and keep that depth? If Smith and DOC weren’t waiver exempt then this would make more sense. There is nothing wrong with sending Smith to the Ahl to gain confidence. Especially since he was pretty bad last year. And DOC coming off a major injury.

RD is a position of strength now, losing Ruhwedel is not as big of a deal as it would be in the past. Look, one of the depth guys are probably on the way out. This scenario involves Ruhwedel moving and he is the one that likely carries the most value in a trade.

Nothing more to gain in the AHL for Joseph and O'Connor. The defensemen who need minutes in the AHL to develop are St. Ivany, Maniscalco and Swoyer. The forwards that need minutes are Poulin, Hållander, Svejkovsky, Glover, etc. There are a lot of new faces down there that need evaluation.

I can see your point with Smith starting there to get a very quick confidence boost but it won't be for long - he needs to spend more time with Reirden if anything.

It's just how the NHL is. Sometimes players have to sit in the press box.

It’s a position of strength that you’re weakening for the sake of destroying our two best defensive prospects. It makes zero sense. Not only are you losing Ruhwedel for basically nothing here. But you’re also sending Friedman through waivers who probably would get picked up. So now our position of strength once again becomes a position of weakness and you really didn’t strengthen the team elsewhere. All you did was jerk around 3 of the teams prospects. Nothing good comes of having prospects just sit in the press box. What would be the point of the Ahl if that was the case? Nothing good comes of playing two prospects on a rotation. Guys who need time so they can get chemistry and gel.
Sending smith down to the Ahl does nothing to the time of the RD prospects cause Smith is a LD. And since the team doesn’t really have any LD worth a damn outside of Pickering (Who is at minimum 3 years away and going back to juniors) he and WBS could use him to play top line and PP minutes. POJ won’t be sent down cause he isn’t waivers exempt and would be claimed for sure. DOC wouldn’t be taking time away from guys like Poulin, Legare, Hallander, Puustinen, Svejkovsky, or Glover as DOC plays left wing and those guys are centers or RW. It would make more sense to make Nylander the 13th forward since he isn’t waiver exempt and could hop into the top 9 when injuries occur.
You’re right sometimes players do have to sit in the press box. They are called depth defensemen or guys who have had a handful of bad games in a row. Not top prospects for the sake of having them up when they are waiver exempt and need playing time.

We can go about this all night but I am just going to have to agree to disagree with you.

RD is not weakening by trading Ruhwedel. Letang, Petry, Rutta and Freidman (who by the way, would not get claimed after training camp when all other teams are having to send down similar like players on waivers in the flat cap period) are a completely solid bunch. I get it, some people don't like the Rutta contract but he is a perfectly capable third paring defenseman who comes from a championship winning organization that could defend leads. I am fan of Ruhwedel but something has to give with all these defensemen and it doesn't mean keeping Smith in the AHL. Ruhwedel is great but you are really acting like the sky is falling by moving him and not seeing the surplus of RD.

I keep repeating myself, there is nothing to gain with those player spending a majority of their time in the AHL. It is time to for them stay up with the NHL club, going through those routines and adding that infusion of youth this team would need and yes that may comes with some occasional press box time - sue me. No one is "getting destroyed" by this. If they perform poorly then by all means, send them down.

In the grand scheme, having a player down in the AHL who shouldn't be there takes up a spot in the lineup. This moves others down who should be getting AHL time. Poulin got moved to C because of poor performance/needing time there to learn the game - this has been reported. He is a LW and needs to spend time there this year after improving as a player at C. You may be overvaluing Joseph a bit too - management is not exactly enamored with him.

Nylander as the 13th forward is a joke, I do not understand the some of the fans' fascination with him. Probably because of his last name. Puustinen is also NHL ready and is way ahead of Nylander but falls victim to the depth at RW.

Yes RD is weakened by trading Ruhwedel. No playoff team thinks “yeah I want less defensive depth”. There is zero reason to trade Ruhwedel. Smith absolutely needs time in the Ahl. He had a pretty bad season last year and needs to regain confidence. Just like they did with POJ. And are you a member of the pens management to know management isn’t happy with POJ? I’m willing to bet if they weren’t happy with him they’d have traded him over Marino and not signed him to a contract. Idk where you got that I wasn’t happy with the Rutta contract. That’s just putting words in my mouth. Teams aren’t sending down similar defenseman as Friedman. They are sending down cap casualties that teams won’t claim or Ahl level defenseman. A team like vegas, Tampa, Toronto, or Florida who are cap crunched and need a depth defenseman probably claims him. But even if he doesn’t go claimed, he would just take a spot from someone in the Ahl too. I’d rather Smith take a spot and actually play, than Friedman take a spot and Smith sit in the press box. Not to mention players need playing time to get in a rhythm and chemistry. Not only are you jerking around Smith and POJ, you’re jerking around Rutta by not giving them a consistent partner. As for Nylander it has nothing to do with his name. It has everything to do with how he played when he was traded here and the fact that you have more top 9 players likely to get injured than fourth liners that could get injured. And again I’d rather Puustinen and DOC get the playing time down in the Ahl then sit in a press box. Again sending down Archibald, Caggiula, Nylander, zohorna, etc all take time from the younger guys who should be getting it too. If anyone should be taking time from them it should be DOC, not Archibald. Poulin is playing center because that’s his best position. Hallander more likely plays wing and likely plays bottom 6 as he is likely a bottom 6 player in the Ahl.

Hey buddy - just wanted to check in with you. Friedman cleared waivers as did others like Nylander who you think could of been the 13th forward.

You can say Zohorna didn't, but he is a fringe NHL player and Hextall didn't even bother to put a claim on him after getting waived again by Clagary the other day.

See? It is easy to clear waivers this time of year with the cap problems other teams are having. You and others freak out too much after this "project players" getting claimed.

Have a good day!

I’m not sure what you’re trying to prove by going back to something over a month ago that proved you wrong on basically everything. I mean it’s weird but you do you. You said they would trade Ruhwedel which didn’t happen, you said they’d send down Archibald which didn’t happen, you said they wouldn’t send down guys like DOC and Puustinen when they did. You said they wouldn’t send Smith down, but they did. You threw a bunch of crap at the wall and were right on one thing lol. You got less right than I did and made a snarky/trollish comment trying to brag about that. Weird but hey, if it helps you sleep at night go for it lol