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WILKES-BARRE — Up until now, Chad Ruhwedel’s longest taste of the NHL came in 2014 when he played 21 games for the Buffalo Sabres.
It was troubling times in Buffalo during Ruhwedel’s tenure with the big-league club.
Buffalo fired head coach Ron Rolston and general manager Darcy Regier only to replace them with former Sabres head coach Ted Nolan, as the new coach, Sabres legend Pat LaFontaine as the president of hockey operations and later, Ottawa Senators assistant general manager Tim Murray, as the new GM.
And there was Ruhwedel, getting the call from Rochester at the end of January, and playing with the Sabres amidst a finish in the Eastern Conference cellar.
“It was really cool. A lot of fun playing in the NHL every night,” Ruhwedel said. “The organization was kind of in a transition period and I’m not sure if they knew who was going where just yet, but I was fortunate enough to be up there playing.”
Even though the Sabres struggled during the 2013-14 season, Ruhwedel made the most of his time up with NHL team. He picked up on things from veterans like goaltender Ryan Miller and forward Thomas Vanek. Both Miller and Vanek were traded midseason by Buffalo, and while Ruhwedel didn’t get to play with talented forward during the 2013-14 campaign, he did the season prior.
“You just kind of absorb everything you see,” Ruhwedel said. “You watch how guys do their daily routines through practices, games, all that kind of stuff, and you just try to take in as much stuff as you can and that’s what I did. I tried to translate it to make my game better and my everyday routine better.”
One veteran who took Ruhwedel aback was Miller. Even though Miller wasn’t playing in the defenseman’s NHL debut, he still introduced himself and made Ruhwedel feel welcomed.
“It was quite the experience,” he said. “Honestly, I was a little shellshocked. There were a lot of big-name guys, like Thomas Vanek, on the team and I was fortunate to be on the ice with them and play with them, in the locker room and watch what they did, and I’m very grateful for that.”
Fast forward to this past offseason, and Ruhwedel was a free agent for the first time since he went undrafted out of college. The former UMass Lowell River Hawk signed a two-way, one-year contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins on July 1, coming to Pennsylvania with 33 games of NHL experience.
It was a new and different opportunity for Ruhwedel. A chance to play for an organization fresh off a Stanley Cup title.
I guess the best way to put it is two organizations in different stages,” Ruhwedel said. “Coming to this organization and the stage they’re at — Wilkes was a good team, too, last year — and you just kind of get excited about the winning atmosphere and it just makes you want to be better, like personally. Focus on more stuff on and off the ice and come ready to play every day. You just let your natural skill take over. As long as you’re ready mentally everything else will play out.”
Ruhwedel’s impact has been greatly appreciated by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach Clark Donatelli. The defenseman is sixth on the team in points, with 11.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton assistant coach Chris Taylor was an assistant coach for the Rochester Americans during Ruhwedel’s time with the Amerks.
“Coach Taylor’s been coaching him well in Rochester, so he knows him very well,” Donatelli said. “He’s a great addition for our club here. He has NHL experience, really good on the power play, a leader out there, logs a lot of ice time for us. We’re happy to have him.
Those troubling times, not having played in the playoffs since 2014, in a first-round exit with the Americans, have stuck with the defenseman. Now with a brand new franchise, Ruhwedel has taken those memories from his time in Buffalo and Rochester, and helped shape his game for his next phone call.
“I learned in college pretty quickly that with team success comes individual success,” Ruhwedel said. “If the team’s winning everybody’s going to be looking good, so that’s the way I look at it. If you have two points in a loss, sure two points is nice, but honestly, it’s much better to have the win. All the real stuff happens in the playoffs anyway, so you have to get there first. Just try to move forward with the team and win.”
