I don't think McGroarty is slow, his smarts allow him to be in good positioning but he also hangs back a lot to be a support player but above the dot and not below, so he doesn't into the corners or behind the net to battle and he hangs back. I think in his head he's been told he isn't fast enough so he plays cautiously because of it, that's something he can work on too. If you watch his skating, he has strong strides, but they're choppy as shit. He just needs some hard work with getting a smoother stride, his cross overs, his edge work, stuff like that can be improved and you won't suddenly become Connor McDavid, but his skating can definitely improve like Carter Verhaeghe's did.
Verhaeghe is who I felt is the best comparison for Rutger with how he plays, both had the knock of skating and both were pass first playmakers around the same age, for Carter he worked a ton on his balance and edge work and it got him a smoother stride and he was able to use his strides more effectively rather than the choppy style Rutger has imo. So that can be fixed, I just think the biggest waste was them shoving him in every pre-season game and then wasting him in the line-up under Sullivan, I felt he should have been with WBS to start with and he could have worked on more stuff right from the get go. But his skating doesn't worry me, if Carter can fix his with hard work, Rutger is no slouch in wanting to work hard and improve either.
But as for the whole falling out with the Jets, I thought the Pens would kick the tires and land him for something like Pickering and a pick for Rutger and a later pick, something to that extent at most. But Yager straight up? I wasn't a fan of that and I said this at the time - the Pens needed Rutger IN ADDITION TO Yager in this prospect pool, I definitely didn't want to see the Pens move Lucius or anything like that, Rutger is familiar with Chaz in the Jets system and Cruz and Rutger were on the US U18 back in 2021-22. Curious what Cruz does with the Sun Devils after 2yrs with the Badgers.
But yeah, maybe I wasn't that high on Pickering if anything and was ok losing him for Rutger to add to Yager, Lucius, Pono, Koivunen, Broz, etc.
We should be watching a lot of different shit if it weren't for Dullivan (nice btw lol).
It's funny that he thinks he "tries" things and it's usually the bare minimum, like he won't put Bunting with Sid, he won't try Puljujarvi with Sid or even a combination of JP and Geno with another LW, he abandoned a solid 3rd line last year that he didn't want to try this year and Eller suffered because of it and Doc has been a mess as well, he basically survives off of the other team being far worse and a major performance out of Sid, Geno, or EK. I don't want any more prospects up until that f***wad is fired. Let's hope this is the last season, they might wait to do it in the off season out of respect but if they play the whole money owed angle then what the f*** are they Billionaires for? Especially ones that want success with Hockey, because Sullivan ain't it.
