Fifth Avenue Forum

Riikola and Beetle back to the fourth pairing for the third consecutive year. So **** weird.

No idea why they keep signing here when the team does anything possible not to play them... And why they keep re-signing them if they aren't going to play them... Very strange.

I guess I kind of get it? I have no idea what Riikola would fetch on the open market (any ideas mikey), but $1.15MM for two seasons is a hell of a lot more than he would get if he went back home. Ruhwedel is a guy who could make like every other fringe player in the league and jump from spot to spot every year looking for playing time but instead decided to take league minimum on a one-way deal in exchange for stability and $4mm in contract value over the six seasons he's signed for. There's no guarantee that he wouldn't be moved, but the organization likes him to the point of signing a depth defenseman to multi-year deals. It's just baffling to me from an organizational perspective that we keep signing these two, never use them, and then actively try to replace them.

I guess I kind of get it? I have no idea what Riikola would fetch on the open market (any ideas mikey), but $1.15MM for two seasons is a hell of a lot more than he would get if he went back home. Ruhwedel is a guy who could make like every other fringe player in the league and jump from spot to spot every year looking for playing time but instead decided to take league minimum on a one-way deal in exchange for stability and $4mm in contract value over the six seasons he's signed for. There's no guarantee that he wouldn't be moved, but the organization likes him to the point of signing a depth defenseman to multi-year deals. It's just baffling to me from an organizational perspective that we keep signing these two, never use them, and then actively try to replace them.

Ruhwedel played in 41 games last year.

Source of the post I'm sure some will bemoan the lack of pigeon though.

ESPN: The NHL draft was just completed recently. You were drafted 43rd overall in the 2007 draft by Montreal. What do you remember most about that day, and what do you think has changed the most since you participated in it?

Subban: Huh, what do I remember about that day? It was my second day at the draft. I had a beautiful suit that I had tailor-made in Toronto. I wasn't really thinking about going to the draft in the first place, because I didn't even have to go to the combine. I think it was only the top hundred or 150 ranked players that went to the combine. But I did have three teams that were interested in me: I believe it was Washington, Florida and Pittsburgh.

I remember them saying that they wanted to see if I was willing to go to the draft. So we drove to Columbus from Toronto. On the first day, there was a chance I was going to go to Pittsburgh at around 20th overall if the player that they wanted wasn't available. That player was Angelo Esposito, and they ended up selecting him. So any chance of being selected in the first round was pretty slim by then.