We just had a spell of higher-ish picks just flat out not turn into anything and I'm not sure that I blame anyone other than the player really. Hallander, Bjorkqvist, Hall, Legare, Lauzon, Phillips...that's 6 2nd/3rd round picks that amounted to absolutely nothing from 2016 on. Some got hurt, some played a small number of games but man, when you're looking at a roster void of mid-20's talent and you wonder what happened...there's the answer.
For real. There was some real copium chugging over the years re: Ruh. Like... guys... this player is clearly horrible and they are clearly still playing him. That's bad. Hell even I said years back that he's fine for a depth D to hand a league minimum deal to and then have him ride the bench so a young guy doesn't have to. But it definitely didn't work out that way, either haha
I wanted Rudwedel gone, 100%, but the one thing that was semi-nice about a guy like him was that he...did...provide basic-level bottom-pairing services. He provided it for league minimum. And, at his age and ability, he's a guy you could HS for 81 games, then play him #82 without missing much and without worry about what being a HS for 81 games would do for his development.
I wouldn't want to scratch Shea or JSI for 81 games.
I love how every single season we get all pumped for training camp even though it means diddly shit.
When was the last time we had a camp with a crop of young guys like Pono, Yager, Koivunen, Broz, Pickering, etc?
Typically, there is ONE guy we are hopeful for.
It'll be interesting to see what they do this UFA. Wouldn't be shocked if we go into the season with 4-5 million in cap open.
If they are not in it at the TDL, it would be a big help if we want to look to act as a third party salary retention broker or take on a bad contract for payment.