I think even 3 games with the Pens would help him a ton with growing.
The speed of the NHL with feedback from coaches instantly on these are what you need to do to stay for next year so work on these in Junior to me is super beneficial.
Again the 3rd pair in the NHL is legit for developing as a player.
It is not the 4th line.
Like I said, I'm cool with like the 9 games before he needs to be sent back, I don't even care if he scores a ton and looks great, I still send him back after 9 games.
It just pisses me off that at the end of 2022-23, all Dubas had to do was force Sullivan to keep POJ as a regular like he should have been, he was fine in his 75 game season and they really never ever needed Ryan Graves, but I guarantee you that was an entirely Mike Sullivan thing. Because he never quite seemed happy about POJ and his usage of him showed that. They could have gone and signed a different LHD instead.
The defense routinely had issues allowing players to the front of the net and have for close to a decade now and thought Ryan Graves would fix that, which I mean I am not shocked Sullivan had a player in mind that he didn't really scout properly (see: Oleksiak, Johnson, etc).
I would have been fine with Radko Gudas, Niko Mikkola (always liked him on the Blues before he got dealt to the Rangers and then sigend with Florida last summer). POJ looked good with Letang that year, they just had to keep it going imo.
Pettersson, Karlsson
POJ, Letang
Ludvig/Shea/UFA, Gudas/St Ivany/UFA/Turdwedel/Smith
In any case, I am happy to see Harrison end up being a stud of a player, being that my Mum is South African and so is Brunicke (although he was raised in Canada after they moved), it'd be very cool to see someone with that heritage as well, but I hestitate with how this team handles young promising players.
Man, those Jamie Benn/Jason Robertson/Matthew Tkachuk comparisons are certainly looking like a pipe dream now.
Always better to just watch the player first.
Rutger to me shows a lot of smarts that you don't expect out of a player that age. He's constantly in the right position to intercept passes, supports his forwards, it's like he's ignoring Sullivan's "idea of a system" and plays the game the way he knows he needs to, to succeed and help his line succeed. It's refreshing to have a player that young have that IQ that isn't brainwashed by Sullivan yet.
I don't even know who I would compare him to, which is fine, he's a Rutger McGroarty as it were and whatever he is this season in WBS or on the Pens, he might not be the same player later on. For me I still think he reminds me of Carter V from the Panthers. The way he skates and moves, that offensive confidence will come after he pots a goal.
