Fifth Avenue Forum

Absolutely the biggest hole on the roster, then maybe a #6 RHD. Not sure Ruhwedel can handle 82 games.

Absolutely the biggest hole on the roster, then maybe a #6 RHD. Not sure Ruhwedel can handle 82 games.

I don't think he can either, but I also don't think he'll be getting that opportunity because someone else is coming in now or during the season. TVR at 800K would have been a slight upgrade and Bogosian at 1mil wouldn't have been pretty good. Yeah, he gets injured all the time but when in the line up he has size and can definitely hit and play decent defensive dman minutes. Maybe JR reached out and Bogosian preferred Toronto, who knows?

I wish he was a great person and an even better player

*swish*

I'm a nut for having six strong d-men...I can usually hide a forward, but I can't hide defense...I'd still be trying to upgrade there...

Which doesn't dismiss 3C and backup goalie either...

MOAR GOALIES!!!

Is it more likely that Beetle is the 6th D or Riikola (or someone else) playing their off side?

Riikola can play the off side but with Sullivan's love affair with having a RHD and LHD on each pair I assumed it'll be Ruhwedel

I really hope Sam Poulin and PO Joseph make the team.

I feel like one of Ruhwedel/Riikola/POJ will be serviceable as 6th D man. I'm worried for the inevitable injury bug when 2-3 defensemen are down what tf we'll do

We will call up Zach Trotman.

Screw Bogosian give me someone who isn't a fat load back there.

That Capitals defense looks... not fast

I really hope Sam Poulin and PO Joseph make the team.

I am rooting for this. You keep going back there and I love the enthusiasm for it...it'd be nice if a young player positively surprised us on top of Marino...which may be asking a lot in this org...

I still worry about Joseph's weight, but if he can play he can play. He might out weigh Pettersson at this point. I'm really rooting for Poulin as well. With the current financial constraints he seems like the best option for adding talent to the third line. In a perfect scenario I would be bumping McCann into the top six and rolling with Poulin and Kapanen as the third line wings, but even then 3C is an issue.

I’ve only seen POJ play in person twice. He is extremely mobile and long. He’s one of those guys that just looks like he can take away 75% of the width of the rink with one crossover. And he is aggressive with it. He trusts his skating ability. He is not real strong, but has decent balance. He does a lot of fishing on defense. He’s really slippy and avoids contact well. His breakout passes...mikey will need a towel.

I’ve only seen POJ play in person twice. He is extremely mobile and long. He’s one of those guys that just looks like he can take away 75% of the width of the rink with one crossover. And he is aggressive with it. He trusts his skating ability. He is not real strong, but has decent balance. He does a lot of fishing on defense. He’s really slippy and avoids contact well. His breakout passes...mikey will need a towel.

I think there’s a better than average chance that Pettersson is traded in the next year. It doesn’t make sense to hold up POJ if he is ready to play.

Or they just go Michael Keaton in Batman “wanna get nuts, let’s get nuts” and move on from Tanger

Actually that’s dumb. Forget what I said. POJ plays on the left. Letang isn’t holding him up at all

fwiw, Mike Vellucci loves POJ.

Sami Vatanen is still available GMJR, just saying

Buffalo has an extra RD, and need a defensive LD...I wonder how far the conversation would get around Pettersson for Ristolainen...

Risto needs some help, as he can be all over the place...but he's not untalented...

At about $2.5 mil in cap space, I'm not sure if Vatanen will fit here...but I'd very much enjoy adding some RHS talent to the back line...

Wasn't he (Risto) already rumored to being looked at by the Pens months ago?

Possibly...it also could have been me proposing the idea back then as well...I'm not even sure if I really like Risto or not to be honest...it just seems like a match...

give me Vatanen

Possibly...it also could have been me proposing the idea back then as well...I'm not even sure if I really like Risto or not to be honest...it just seems like a match...

I like Risto more than Pettersson. I mean, Reirden will have some serious work to do with him and Matheson.

But going back to what I’ve been saying all year: we need our D to drive offense much much more than last year. And adding Ristolainen (or Vatanen if somehow we can fit him in) would make that goal so much easier to achieve

Thinking out loud...if we have an opportunity to sign Vatanen, I would 100 percent be cool with moving Pettersson and letting rikola/poj fight it out for the last spot on the left

Dumo-letang
Matheson-Marino
Rikola/POJ- Vatanen

Possibly...it also could have been me proposing the idea back then as well...I'm not even sure if I really like Risto or not to be honest...it just seems like a match...

I wouldn't have expected you to be a fan of ristolaonen. I think he stinks as a #1 or whatever Buffalo tried to make him but would actually be a lot better with a lesser role.

Yeah, I'm not sure that I am...but without an identity, china shop bulls seem like a reasonable way to go...

I've been meaning to sit down and really try to figure out where he's at for my edification...but it's one of those things where nothing forces my hand to do so...we don't have him, none of my friends are Sabres fans, there's no need to gain a deeper knowledge on him haha - so it just gets backburnered...

He has not been good when pressed into big, heavy minutes though, that's for true...what I want to know if he could be salvaged playing a little lower in the lineup...having these roving bands of barbarians and miscreants around is one way that I would try to preserve and extend the life of Kristopher Letang, who I find essential to the process...