This is the exact take I am talking about... Ruh underrated, Ceci trash.

The real value with Ruhwedel is he does a good job being game ready, even when he sits in the press box for extended periods. But he is very protected and plays very limited minutes. I'd say he is fairly rated as a 6/7.

Ceci had terrible deployment and hung in there playing 20 mins a game for the Leafs who have one of the worst defensive forward groups in the league. It doesn't make him great, but if everyone thinks he is trash, id say he is underrated.
- MacPatty

You can basically make this argument for any crappy dman playing top four minutes. Sometimes a dman just stinks.

You can basically make this argument for any crappy dman playing top four minutes. Sometimes a dman just stinks.
- Rinosaur

Yes, and you can make the same arguement for any crappy 7th defenceman whom no team has ever trusted enough to put into a full time bottom pairing role (let alone top 4). Sometimes a dman just stinks.

This guy gets it.

Look, I know a ton of Flyers fans that said when Doc would call a game between them and the Pens, they thought it might as well have been a Pittsburgh home game. And yeah, there might have been some bad blood there when Doc was fired by Philly, but that was ages ago, and had an extremely successful career after that.

Nah. Doc wasn't rooting for the Pens. Doc was hyping up the league's brightest stars, and frankly it revolved around guys like Crosby (especially Crosby) for a very long time. Doc is for casual fans, and he's trying to suck them into the sport. He's like Madden in that respect. Perfect for the part-time viewer of the game.

That was his job. He did it fine. It rubbed some long-time fans the wrong way, but he did was he was paid to do. Sid was the best of his generation and the Pens won Cups. Of COURSE he's gonna talk about Crosby a lot.

Doc wasn't my favorite by far, frankly not my cup of tea, but there was a place for him in the sport, and he did his gig the way they wanted him to with high energy.
- Hesh_

I agree with everything you said here. He was a good play by play guy, not fancy just a fan of the game. I don't believe he has a preference of teams.

On a side note, you do know Doc is from western Pennsylvania. He made no secret of being a Pirates fan.

I think Ruhwedel is very underrated. Not that I think he's some amazing dman, but I think he's a solid #6 and is capable of being an NHL regular. Ceci is trash and time will tell if 3rd pairing deployment will allow him to shine, but I honestly take Ruhwedel over Ceci. The only reason I can see some people liking Ceci better is because he's more physical than Ruhwedel.
- Rinosaur

I think ceci is exactly what he signed for. A minimal paid 3rd pair player and I think with good deployment he can do well in his role, which honestly JJ set the bar so low all ceci has to do is not JJ. I think Ruhw is also appropriately positioned as a 6th Dman and could possibly be a little better than Ceci is he played the games Ceci had. I’ve always been pretty happy wITH Ruhw when he plays.

That being said I hope the better player keeps his spot but I’d rather have both for when the annual Tanger injury strikes so Ruhw isn’t forced into a 2nd pairing role and Maniscalco or whoever isn’t forced onto the team if they can’t handle the big leagues.

If a signing or trade were to happen for a 3-4mil player JR could easily shuffle ppl around to free it up.

Yes, and you can make the same arguement for any crappy 7th defenceman whom no team has ever trusted enough to put into a full time bottom pairing role (let alone top 4). Sometimes a dman just stinks.
- MacPatty

Except Ruhwedel's stats prove he doesn't stink.

Except Ruhwedel's stats prove he doesn't stink.
- Rinosaur

Do they not? I'd say Ceci had better stats than Ruhwedel last year by about every single measure.

Do they not? I'd say Ceci had better stats than Ruhwedel last year by about every single measure.
- MacPatty

No, they show he's solid. There were some comparisons done by some stats guys that showed Ruhwedel outperformed Ceci.

In terms of the Pens cap space, I feel like there are still moves to come.

If you start the year with Riikola and ZAR in the minors and IR respectively, the Pens have $3.3M in available cap space, and that is with carrying Ruh and Lafferty as extras.

So the Pens could in essence bump Lafferty to the minors to start the year and have $4M to spend. Seems like a good chance of being able to get a Haula or Granlund with that amount.
- MacPatty

I sort of think they're done for now and going to see what they have. More likely a prospect pushes for Lafferty's spot.

I would be surprised if they put Riikola on waivers right after giving him that extension, although there's a chance he clears because teams don't want the second year.