nossagog Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 Well with a lack of scoring depth this season hurting the Penguins, GM Rutherford trades one of the players that could give him some depth for another defenseman. Daniel Sprong, who had quite the junior career, just was not getting much time in the Pens lineup playing on the fourth line. This was one of those head scratching moments, they seemed to just bury him down there. Rutherford, who says he has no plans to move any of his defenseman, now has eight NHL defenseman on the team with Letang, Oleksiak, Maatta, Johnson, Doumolin, Riikolla, Pettersson and Ruhwedel. Oh yeah, remember that Justin Shultz guy who is on injured reserve? What the heck is he thinking. I certainly hope that he has something planned here as you can't keep all of them in the press box getting no experience? And I hope they don't bury Riikolla like they did Sprong and stunt his growth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyercanuck Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 6 hours ago, nossagog said: Well with a lack of scoring depth this season hurting the Penguins, GM Rutherford trades one of the players that could give him some depth for another defenseman. Daniel Sprong, who had quite the junior career, just was not getting much time in the Pens lineup playing on the fourth line. This was one of those head scratching moments, they seemed to just bury him down there. Rutherford, who says he has no plans to move any of his defenseman, now has eight NHL defenseman on the team with Letang, Oleksiak, Maatta, Johnson, Doumolin, Riikolla, Pettersson and Ruhwedel. Oh yeah, remember that Justin Shultz guy who is on injured reserve? What the heck is he thinking. I certainly hope that he has something planned here as you can't keep all of them in the press box getting no experience? And I hope they don't bury Riikolla like they did Sprong and stunt his growth. Well I guess it's still go time in Pitt so the trade makes sense sort of. I think Sprong has more upside than the return, but D over W I guess. But when the Pens finally bottom out, it's going to be rock bottom. As in "Please Mr. Bettman our fans have left us and we're moving to KC so please give us a generational player to save our franchise " rock bottom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B21 Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 On 12/3/2018 at 10:10 PM, nossagog said: Well with a lack of scoring depth this season hurting the Penguins, GM Rutherford trades one of the players that could give him some depth for another defenseman. Daniel Sprong, who had quite the junior career, just was not getting much time in the Pens lineup playing on the fourth line. This was one of those head scratching moments, they seemed to just bury him down there. Rutherford, who says he has no plans to move any of his defenseman, now has eight NHL defenseman on the team with Letang, Oleksiak, Maatta, Johnson, Doumolin, Riikolla, Pettersson and Ruhwedel. Oh yeah, remember that Justin Shultz guy who is on injured reserve? What the heck is he thinking. I certainly hope that he has something planned here as you can't keep all of them in the press box getting no experience? And I hope they don't bury Riikolla like they did Sprong and stunt his growth. Sprong = Eric Tangradi 2.0. If a guy projects at a top 9 (heck - top 6 in Sprong's case) you can't have them "learn" on the 4th line. That said, I think it's clear that in his limited chances both in games and practices Sprong didn't do much to impress Sullivan and we know the coach isn't going anywhere. They have 3 RW signed to multi-year deals ahead him, too. While I don't like how they handled his development I can't argue with getting a comparable young controllable defenseman who - while not having Sprong's upside - is certainly more of an asset right now. Could be a prelude to another deal down the road (do they give up on the Jack Johnson experiment already?). All I know is come playoff time you can never have too much depth on D. There is always the option (come playoff time) to dress 7 defensemen, too. That leaves at least Ruhwedel in the press box come playoff time which is where he belongs at that time of year. As for Riikolla - I think he's safe. To a man (err - Sullivan and JR) they are publicly high on him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockey-78 Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 @nossagog Either Dumoulin, Maatta or Johnson on his way out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B21 Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 On 12/3/2018 at 10:10 PM, nossagog said: Well with a lack of scoring depth this season hurting the Penguins, GM Rutherford trades one of the players that could give him some depth for another defenseman. Daniel Sprong, who had quite the junior career, just was not getting much time in the Pens lineup playing on the fourth line. This was one of those head scratching moments, they seemed to just bury him down there. Rutherford, who says he has no plans to move any of his defenseman, now has eight NHL defenseman on the team with Letang, Oleksiak, Maatta, Johnson, Doumolin, Riikolla, Pettersson and Ruhwedel. Oh yeah, remember that Justin Shultz guy who is on injured reserve? What the heck is he thinking. I certainly hope that he has something planned here as you can't keep all of them in the press box getting no experience? And I hope they don't bury Riikolla like they did Sprong and stunt his growth. Still not liking the trade? Since being dealt, Sprong has 4 goals, an assist and is a -5 in 12 games. Pettersson has 2 assists, is a +5 and has stabilized the 3rd D pairing with Jack Johnson. I gotta give credit where it's due on this one. Small sample but JR got this one right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nossagog Posted January 4, 2019 Author Share Posted January 4, 2019 23 hours ago, B21 said: Still not liking the trade? Since being dealt, Sprong has 4 goals, an assist and is a -5 in 12 games. Pettersson has 2 assists, is a +5 and has stabilized the 3rd D pairing with Jack Johnson. I gotta give credit where it's due on this one. Small sample but JR got this one right. Yeah, I had always hoped that Sprong would blossom into that guy, kind of like Simon is, that can play up on the top lines. Just wasn't happening. Pettersson had played really solidi(I think Gonch has a magic wand he waives when he gets a young defenseman), I just don't know what is going to happen when everyone is healthy on the back line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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