Probably, but I think he could end up being that rock-solid guy that Martin was. I know Martin had rough patches, but I still think he was a damn good defenseman for us while he was here.
And I think our blueline could use a guy like him badly. It'd allow Maatta to slot down and not have to be so heavily relied upon too.
The issue with that, is that Martin was much more then just a "rock solid D". He was extremely mobile and had a great first pass. Martin in 5 years and 297 RS games put up 109 points - Alzner has barely done that over his entire 8 year career and almost 600 games.
I also do not think that if we went out and got someone like Alzner, that we could afford Maatta. At least probably not if we wanted to have a decent/good #3C. I have no issues moving Maatta as long as it makes sense... but I doubt Rutherford feels the same way.
Spending big money on Alzner would be a huge mistake. He's a good defensive d-man, but the guy's career-high is 21 points. We've shown we can take guys like Cole and Ruhwedel and turn them into solid defensive complements to our dynamic puck movers, which is all we need for our system.
Not to mention that Ruhwedel has been seeing a pretty big increase in icetime. In 6 of our last 7 games, he's played over 20 minutes (averaging 20:48 over that span). Sure a couple of those games we were missing guys, but the last 4 we've been healthy (at least in terms of losing someone mid game) and he's still been seeing between 20 and 24 minutes a night. I think he's almost a certainty to be our #6D (#3 RD) next season.
Last edited: