Confirmed Trade: [VAN/PIT] Mark Friedman and Ty Glover for Jack Rathbone and Karel Plasek

[Turin]

Yea but POJ is left side d-man, no? The obvious answer is that POJ doesn’t get any special teams time.

That too. I mean Karlsson and Letang's pairings are taking up the bulk of the minutes and POJ isn't gonna play with them over Pettersson and Graves.

I realize that, but looking more into it the difference with POJ compared to some other bottom pairing guys around the league is that he’s getting almost no time on special teams which makes sense given the rest of the defensive unit. Was just wondering if maybe he could be someone Pittsburgh may look at trading as he seems to be underutilized in that role?

I think POJ is definitely a trade candidate this season. Pens have Ludvig, Shea, Rathbone, Smith all below him.

 

[jackjohnson]

Pittsburgh won this trade. Rathbone is the only interesting player in this trade. He’s highly proficient as a pp qb, although his defense is really bad.


What a gigantic exaggeration lol.

In a vaccum maybe Rathbone has slightly higher value but Rathbone hasn't played much NHL games because of his bad D. I also don't think he will ever be anything in Vancouver with Hronek, Hughes and having Wallinder eventually make the team in 2 to 3 years. So Rathbone would have to become a 5th or 6th dman which is not good for him being mainly an offensive dman. This trade is good for Canucks since they get much needed depth.

 

[Buresflyingelbow]

Yah gonna be hard to convince anyone with a brain that trading two cap dumps for Karlsson was a bad move. lmao. take a lap.

OEL says hi!

 

[Jumptheshark]

Canucks finally get a partner for Hughes

nice sarcasm

I can not call this an AHL trade as one guy in the ECHL

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I realize that, but looking more into it the difference with POJ compared to some other bottom pairing guys around the league is that he’s getting almost no time on special teams which makes sense given the rest of the defensive unit. Was just wondering if maybe he could be someone Pittsburgh may look at trading as he seems to be underutilized in that role?

For the right return, that would make sense.

The Pens' bottom 6 is offensively challenged, so a comparably aged/priced forward who can add some offense without getting caved in with heavy dzone starts would be the sort of target I imagine Dubas would be looking for.

A Pens poster proposed POJ for Raddysh from Chicago recently. That kind of deal.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Sullivan just never seemed to like Friedman. Personally would rather have Friedman in the lineup over Chad Ruhwedel, but Sullivan loves his vanilla players who bring absolutely nothing good to the table besides just being a sweater.

 

[Bubbles]

Rutherford, Alvin, Tocchet, Blueger, Cole, Lafferty, DeSmith, Friedman.. it's getting pretty silly out there. Please take Carter next.

We also had Clancey as a AGM for a year. Scott Young our Director of player development.

We'll take Crosby and Malkin off your hands.

 

[Ryder71]

I don't necessarily think this move helps the Pens. Friedman was a pretty decent guy on the bottom pair. He just drew some ''unnecessary'' attention to himself. But he was a very serviceable guy. Although Ruhwedel is far more subdued and quiet, but very solid in his own right. Less offensive acumen but pretty consistent on the PK and D zone, just maybe more bland. As our team is constructed that's not a problem with EK and Letang being ahead of him. Just not sure I'd move Friedman in this sorta package as it's unlikely Rathbone is gonna be anything special. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Don't understand the trade from Pittsburgh's side. Friedman actually played with an edge.

WBS has too many AHL veterans and Rathbone isn't an AHL veteran.

 

[3ladesof5teel]

Many wanted to see Friedman as the #6 because he brought a little bit of bite to his game that the Pens lacked. Nothing crazy but enough to piss opponents off.

He's ok, would have liked to see more.

Interesting the Pens got Rathbone. We have a lot of "offensive D men" and I feel we need more defensive dmen with some bite.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Many wanted to see Friedman as the #6 because he brought a little bit of bite to his game that the Pens lacked. Nothing crazy but enough to piss opponents off.

He's ok, would have liked to see more.

Interesting the Pens got Rathbone. We have a lot of "offensive D men" and I feel we need more defensive dmen with some bite.

If Friedman was actually a "defensive defenseman", he'd probably be playing over Ruhwedel right now.

He's a puck mover with snarl, he's not a DFD at all. The Penguins desperately need a DFD with Friedman's snarl, it just wasn't Friedman.

 

[3ladesof5teel]

If Friedman was actually a "defensive defenseman", he'd probably be playing over Ruhwedel right now.

He's a puck mover with snarl, he's not a DFD at all. The Penguins desperately need a DFD with Friedman's snarl, it just wasn't Friedman.

I agree and didn't think Friedman was much of a defensive Dman, but he is much different than anyone we currently have.

Hopefully Ludvig can carve out some role

 

[crowi]

Not Rathbone!?! He was one of the greatest players alive looking what Benning's fans were saying! Looks like a lateral move.

 

[biturbo19]

Makes sense. I think they really just wanted to move Rathbone out. He's not going anywhere in Vancouver's system, so in the meantime, he was just clogging up offensive minutes that'd be better spent on various other guys who might still have a future for the Canucks. I think it was pretty clear that Rathbone also just wanted out. I think he saw the dead end there too.

He's not a bad gamble on a "change of scenery" sort of deal. But it's a tough row to hoe for small, defensively porous offensive rover defencemen. There really aren't many opportunities out there for a soft little "powerplay / offensive specialist" anymore. Teams only have 2 real powerplay defencemen and one of them is usually kind of an afterthought. Outside of that sort of role, i'm not sure what he really has to contribute. But he can put up points at the AHL level if given that run out and minutes. Not sure how that really works with Ty Smith around already. But...

 

[NoShowWilly]

Media wasn't kidding when they talked about how many trades these guys make compared to the rest of the league.

 

[seafoam]

Makes sense.

Teams swapping degraging assets.

 

[thebigbea]

Weird pitts trading for rathbone. He’s pretty much Ty smith 2.0. Sucks to lose rathbone though, like him in Vancouver but haven’t gotten much opportunity

 

[biturbo19]

Weird pitts trading for rathbone. He’s pretty much Ty smith 2.0. Sucks to lose rathbone though, like him in Vancouver but haven’t gotten much opportunity

What?

Rathbone has been gifted all sorts of opportunities in Vancouver. He just hasn't run with any of them. He's blocked a bit in that his skillset is hugely redundant on a team that already has Hughes. But Rathbone has been given top AHL minutes, gifted an NHL roster spot...and still just could not make it stick.


It's definitely weird for Pittsburgh with Smith though. Rathbone is a more dynamic skater, but he's worse at pretty much every single other aspect of the game. Not even really sure how that's going to work at the AHL level with both of them. But i guess that's WB problem now.

 

[Peter Griffin]

What?

Rathbone has been gifted all sorts of opportunities in Vancouver. He just hasn't run with any of them. He's blocked a bit in that his skillset is hugely redundant on a team that already has Hughes. But Rathbone has been given top AHL minutes, gifted an NHL roster spot...and still just could not make it stick.


It's definitely weird for Pittsburgh with Smith though. Rathbone is a more dynamic skater, but he's worse at pretty much every single other aspect of the game. Not even really sure how that's going to work at the AHL level with both of them. But i guess that's WB problem now.

Almost just seems like this was a trade of two guys who probably weren’t happy with being sent to the AHL and Allvin and Dubas decided to make a swap to give each guy a fresh start. Looks like Friedman will for sure get a callup, possibly before Thursday, but Rathbone will have a lot more competition ahead of him in Pittsburgh it appears.

 

[biturbo19]

Almost just seems like this was a trade of two guys who probably weren’t happy with being sent to the AHL and Allvin and Dubas decided to make a swap to give each guy a fresh start. Looks like Friedman will for sure get a callup, possibly before Thursday, but Rathbone will have a lot more competition ahead of him in Pittsburgh it appears.

It's hard to really see a path to the NHL for Rathbone in Pittsburgh either. But good luck to him i guess.

Ty Smith is a better version of everything, that they also have waiting in the wings there. POJ is already a kind of similar but better, more useful version of that smooth skating offensive-ish LHD on the big club.

I think Pittsburgh were probably pretty confident moving a RHD when they've got Letang and Karlsson who can each soak up half a game a piece if need be. But their LHD situation isn't super promising for Rathbone either.

 

[PensandCaps]

OEL says hi!

Huh?

 

[3074326]

OEL says hi!

What does OEL have to do with anything?

Rathbone is not good enough to play in the NHL and never will be. Sadly, Dubas simply doesn't understand that defencemen playing like trash in their own zone isn't acceptable, so he keeps bringing in these pylons. It's a minor symptom of a bigger problem caused by a GM who isn't qualified to work in hockey ops.

Settle down, this is an AHL move. None of these guys are going to play in the NHL unless an absurd amount of injuries occur. The Pens have too many vets in the AHL and therefore some of them are unable to play.

Sorry Dubas f***ed your gf tho

 

[stardog]

This doesn't mean anything, but it seems everyone who played on the Flyers from the time he was here hates this dude's guts

Where did you see that? I've never heard anything about them hating his guts while he played with them. Now he has a tendency to piss opponents off as he's an agitator and a pretty decent one that has damn nearly every player on the other team pissed off and focusing on him a few times, which for your number 6 D-Man is always a bonus, but that's it.

Not saying that you're wrong or anything, I'd just be interested in the backstory if it's true... are there any links you can point me in the direction to?

 

[GKJ]

Where did you see that? I've never heard anything about them hating his guts while he played with them. Now he has a tendency to piss opponents off as he's an agitator and a pretty decent one that has damn nearly every player on the other team pissed off and focusing on him a few times, which for your number 6 D-Man is always a bonus, but that's it.

Not saying that you're wrong or anything, I'd just be interested in the backstory if it's true... are there any links you can point me in the direction to?

It’s not specifically written, nothing dirty happened, but we here saw how they reacted to playing so hard against him specifically given how nobody on that team ever seemed interested in doing that against anybody else that season. If it wasn’t curious, it was definitely funny.

Please note I’m not saying anything specific against him, or that I think he’s not a good guy or teammate. He probably had good reason to hate it here since everybody else did. We felt he got jerked around at that time since this team was/is being run by stooges.

 

[MMC]