The 2023-24 season hasn’t been easy for Ryan Graves as he slowly descends the Pittsburgh Penguins defensive depth chart. Now, suiting up on the third pairing with Chad Ruhwedel, Graves has been given the task of playing a simpler game.
After a few games together, the two have become a solid third pairing for the Penguins and have helped Graves make strides towards a deserved promotion.
“When you look at us as a pair, you think simple,” Graves said. “I think we’ve been good defensively. Obviously, Chad brings a different dynamic than playing with Kris [Letang] or Karl [Erik Karlsson].”
Sheltering Graves into this new role hasn’t been an ideal situation for the newbie, but it has without doubt promoted the better aspects of his game.
In the Penguins most recent contest against the Philadelphia Flyers, Graves saw his ice time take a jump back north of 15 minutes. Graves hopes that his run of solid performances can continue and help him make progress.
“I think it’s important for me to have a string of good ones to just find some consistency,” Graves said. “It’s been good, and I think that was a game of how I should play. Just being hard on pucks and hard to play against.”
Not only were the Graves and Ruhwedel pair hard to play against, they managed to find some offence when Graves helped set up Ruhwedel for his first goal of the season.
“I think depth scoring is huge,” Graves said. “When you get a goal from a guy like that. It takes a lot of pressure off the guys that score on a nightly basis.”
Graves knows a thing or two about producing office having shared a line with Letang and Karlsson as he’s slipped down the lineup, but he also isn’t afraid to take shots himself. In 39 games played, Graves has taken 48 total shots on goal and even found the back of the net twice already.
“He’s got the right mentality,” Ruhwedel said. “Good things happen when you shoot the puck. I need to have more of a mentality like that.”
Graves knows he doesn’t score much from his position as a defensive defenseman, but he preaches being able to build offense from the blue line at all costs.
“If you find yourself in good areas to shoot it, you shoot it,” Graves said. “It’s hard to defend off chaos, broken plays, and shots… if you have a chance in a good area you want to be able to shoot.”
The Penguins new look third pairing still isn’t expected to produce much offense, but they’ve been steady together. Graves is working to make his way back up the defensive ladder and so far he’s done pretty well. The ascension won’t occur overnight, but if he remains consistent, Graves could be right back on the top line.
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