Reilly is an offensive defenseman and Pettersson is a defensive defenseman. The fact that they have similar offensive numbers shows that Pettersson is clearly the better defenseman.

And yet Boston uses Reilly on the PK, when you use your best defensive players, more than Pens use MP. Try again.

TOI shorthanded this year. reilly 1:29. MP :36.

You don’t know what you are talking about 🤷🏻‍♂️

They are both 4/5 d men. Both in their prime. Both are finished products. Both contracts run out before they regress. Both are overpaid. Put up the same stats. I stand by my statement. Would not swap 1 for 1. The 1m in extra cap makes Reilly more valuable. Your argument is purely sentimental as opposed to logical.

Nothing you’ve said disproves what I have said.
Reilly has over 50% offensive zone starts, Pettersson has over 50% defensive zone starts. The fact that Reilly plays more pk time just makes that all the more proof that Pettersson is a defensive defenseman and Reilly is offensive defenseman.
What you forgot to state was that Pittsburgh is ranked 7th in team defense, while Boston is in the bottom half of the league. Just because Reilly might be a top 3 option on Boston’s bad defense doesn’t mean the he is better or equal to Pettersson just because MP is the 5th option for a much better defense. Letang isn’t a defensive defenseman and is actually more known for his offense, however plays PK because he is the franchise defenseman. Marino is the number 2 guy. Dumoulin and Ruhwedel are defensive defensemen too. You’re wrong about MP being capped out. He is just entering his prime being only 25. Reilly is 28 and is what he is. This is probably the best you’ll get with him. After McAvoy, Boston has a bunch of spare parts playing D. The pens are also the least penalized team in the league while Boston is in the top half of most penalized teams in the league. So with all that said, I could understand why a defenseman on Boston’s worse defense would get more pk time than a defenseman on Pittsburgh’s much better defense.

80% of what you said in there is absolutely true. Primarily about the difference in Boston’s d corp and Pens, depite you calling them an AHL roster previously. Still does not change the fact Boston does not trade 1 for 1. 🤷🏻‍♂️ It’s a lateral move that does not serve their needs and increases the cap.

But this statement - “ The fact that Reilly plays more pk time just makes that all the more proof that Pettersson is a defensive defenseman and Reilly is offensive defenseman.” is just ludicrous. The fact that Reilly plays more time on the PK than MP proves that? In what effed up logic?

So you think you stick your offensive defenseman out to kill penalties while leaving your defensive d men on the bench for it? Hmm. Guess they used Torey Krug wrong all those years. Brandon Carlo should have been running the PP with Krug a primary Pk guy. They had it backwards, 🤦‍♂️ Lol.

MP is better than Reilly defensively. But Reilly holds his own defensively. Reilly is better offensively and better creator. MP can hold his own as well. Nothing you have said changes the evaluation of who they are. Your belief that MP is a top 3 d man is just false.