Don't cruicfy me for making the suggestion..

[smoothmoneyb]

But right now, our biggest weakness by far is on defense. As nice as it would be to see a legitimate top line winger brought in, right now defense takes priority. We have very little depth and a whole bunch of question marks. Will any of the young guys be able to step up? Will Martin begin to return to the form that brought him here in the first place? Will we see more of the good Letang or bad Letang this year? Who else besides Letang is fit to play point on the PP?

Rumor has it that Wade Redden is about to be bought out of his contract by NY. The thing is, he really isn't that bad of a defenseman, just WAY overpaid. For a veteran minimum type of contract, I think the move would make sense. He could easily fit in as 5-6 D-man on quite a few teams. At the very least he could add depth and fill in as a stop gap until some of the younger guys began to develop. If my memory serves me right, he used to quarterback the power play back in his ottawa days, which is something we could use here as well (at least as another option or possibly for the 2nd unit). Considering most agree that we should be able to make the playoffs with our current roster, even with a couple of d-man making the kind of mistakes that young players are prone to make, I'd like to see us give the young d-man as many opportunities as possible during the regular season to prove themselves, and in the process hopefully find someone we are comfortable going into the playoffs with. Ideally we could do this, all the while waiting for something to open up at the trade deadline to address any issues we have at the time. But that is a rather scary prospect. It might very well end up being the case that just like last year, there will be way more buyers than sellers, and there won't be any realistic options available without over paying. To me, signing a guy like Redden would be a great insurance policy. I think he would potentially come for cheap. He's made his money, and after spending the last 2 years for the Hartford Wolfpack, I can imagine he's just ready to get back to the NHL to try and prove himself.

[Rylan]

No.

[MRandall25]

Disband the NHL

[canaan]

He really is that bad

[DocEmrick]

[Zarley Zalapski Overdrive]

Mmm, that's good libel.

Anyways... even if we're operating under the premise that Redden is redeemable on the ice, he can't be bought out until the summer. The Rangers are just packing him up with styrofoam until then so he can't get hurt.

[Mr. Colby]

I heard Scawt Gowmaz is available?

[Factorial]

Spoiler:

]

I think this is more appropriate:

[smoothmoneyb]

Mmm, that's good libel.

Anyways... even if we're operating under the premise that Redden is redeemable on the ice, he can't be bought out until the summer. The Rangers are just packing him up with styrofoam until then so he can't get hurt.

You're correct, I went back and checked and apparently I must've misread the article. Too bad, though. I stand by my initial comments that it could have been a good fit at the right price, and contingent on a physical/tryout, of course. Apparently he has been given permission to seek out a trade which I don't see happening at all, given his absolutely absurd price tag at the moment.

[Steve]

Looks like he's available now:

[DocEmrick]

[Malkamaniac]

He can't be bought out until the end of this season anyways. Same with Gomez. Why is this actually being brought up because this isn't the first time I've heard it either.

[smoothmoneyb]

I certainly haven't read every post on this board, but I don't recall it being brought up, at least not regards to Redden. NY just announced their intentions to buy him out. Just saying..

But yes, you're right, can't happen until seasons over..

[Malkamaniac]

I certainly haven't read every post on this board, but I don't recall it being brought up, at least not regards to Redden. NY just announced their intentions to buy him out. Just saying..

But yes, you're right, not until seasons over..

Not sure if you're local to Pittsburgh or not, but I've heard it on the radio at least twice. Just funny I suppose because I never thought the defensive situation was dire enough to take an absolute balls out risk on Wade Reddon lolol.

[Idoit40fans]

I don't think very highly of the Pens 5-8 defenders right now, but they're better than Redden.

[mikey287]

I mean, he's probably just going through the motions...but he wasn't any good in the AHL either...so I'm not sure who is saying he can play in the NHL for several teams...otherwise, the Rangers would just eat a couple million and someone would give it a whirl...instead, he's being told to quit...

He started declining before the signing in New York...so it's not like he was purely a cap casualty, he also sucked. So, in addition to him not being bought out until next year, this is a terrible idea. It just adds a worse, softer, more expensive Paul Martin to a list of ho-hum defenders...no thanks...

[sil]

There are probably dozens of other moves Shero could make that would benefit us more than signing Redden to a tryout, one of which would be to do nothing and play Engellend and Lovejoy.

[canaan]

Looks like he's available now:

that is awesomesauce.

[helmespc]

If the Penguins can't develop 1 NHL defenseman out of 8 prospects, they should just disband their farm system.

[canaan]

Any time Wade Redden's name is brought up in Pens related, there should be a bot that autoposts him getting smacked around by Whitney in the 07-08 Playoffs.

[DocEmrick]

Any time Wade Redden's name is brought up in Pens related, there should be a bot that autoposts him getting smacked around by Whitney in the 07-08 Playoffs.

[DelPen]

Bortuzzo, Lovejoy, Engellend, Strait, Despres, Dumoulin, Reese, Sneep, Grant, Morrow, Samuelsson and Mormina are all better than Redden.

[pittsoccer33]

Is he really that bad? I was under the impression the main reason the Rangers sent him down was because they didn't want him to count against the salary cap. Not specifically because of poor play.

Wouldn't they have played him if he was allowed to take a pay cut?

[no name]

Alot of what you said was dead on, but Wade Redden is not the answer.

[no name]

Is he really that bad? I was under the impression the main reason the Rangers sent him down was because they didn't want him to count against the salary cap. Not specifically because of poor play.

Wouldn't they have played him if he was allowed to take a pay cut?

A combination, he wasn't playing like a 6 million dollar defenceman. Sure he was still a NHL quality guy just not at that price tag. They also had other guys they wanted to bring in.

I just seen the NHLPA and NHL are trying to figure out how to settle Gomez and Redden, rangers want them to sit out so they can't get injured and buy them out next season. The NHLPA want to find a way so they can play the year, and still get bought out. I say, allow thoes guys to sign somewhere else, and rangers got to pay that salary also on top of buying out their contractsnext season. Redden and Gomez fear sitting a year will end their career.