Quote:
Originally Posted by True Blue
Ruuti's contract is not cheap. And to be honest, am in no hurry to trade away someone, who at a very early point in career, has proven themselves to be a top-4 defenseman. Erixon has to show that he can unseat Sauer before this can be a discussion.
Sauer may have had an injury history, but one cannot underestimate what he has been able to step up and do at such an early age. The strength of this team has been goaltending and defense. I am loathe to mess with that. And, as a whole, am not hot on idea of trading defensemen for forwards.
As for Erixon, until he actually shows that he is ready to step in, I am not simply giving a spot to him. Let him first make more of an impact than a Stu Bickel, and then we an start to consider whether or not he deserves a shot.
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On that I like Sauer a lot. I'm not necessarily in a hurry to get rid of him. It was more of a kicking the tires comment but at the root of all of it is the thought that sooner or later we are very likely going to be facing a numbers problem and someone or two is going to have to go.
I don't see Torts carrying more than 7 healthy defensemen and if we have 8 or 9 and with Erixon still waiting in the wings--well Woywitka's a fairly easy choice which is not to say he hasn't at least played okay.
Honestly I like all of Sauer, Stralman, Bickel and Eminger. It's a funny thing to say. I can't think of one time in my 40 years of watching the Rangers that we had 7-8-9 defensemen and they were all good. And to be honest I'm not even sure we need to add another top 6 forward as we seem to have too many numbers there.
Really of all the players on the team today the only one I think I don't like is Christensen--though I see him as serviceable and I'm not sure about Wolski.