On 25th June this year Pittsburgh Penguins General Manager Jim Rutherford was entered into the hockey hall of fame. He was chosen due to his status as a ‘builder’ of the reputation of hockey with his Stanley cup in Carolina and the impressive back to back cups in Pittsburgh. Despite all this success however, Rutherford is now gaining a reputation of being a GM that wins cups and then destroys the team. Many Penguins fans have been scratching their heads over some of the moves that Rutherford has made, and are now stating that he was doing the same thing that he did in Carolina, win the cup and then ‘mix things up’ for no apparent reason. I would have to agree with this in a great number of ways, Rutherford may have let his back to back cup success go to his head. Well, it’s either that or he’s a mad genius that no one can quite understand and something big is coming in the next few years. But I really can’t see improvements in any area of the team.
Arguably the first and oddest move made by Rutherford in this string of bad decisions is the signing of Jack Johnson, before the 2018/19 season. Johnson was coming off the back of several bad years and apart from the fact that he was friends with Sidney Crosby being a positive, I don’t think even the most optimistic Penguins fan could see the deal panning out in the long run. Then it came to the term and the price, both horrific, $3.25million a year for 5 years. That much is absolute lunacy for what is a not very good, 3rd pairing defenceman, on the wrong side of 30. This looks even more stupid when you realise the Penguins are a team that is currently struggling for salary cap space. The contract has been a mistake ever since it was signed and even Rutherford himself has realised this by trying to move Johnson in the offseason. What he didn’t realise was that no one wants to take a terrible defenceman for over $3million, meaning the Penguins have 4 more years of Jack Johnson to look forward to and no cap space without moving someone who actually is valuable to the team.
The trade for Erik Gudbranson was met by Penguins fans with a degree of bemusement. Branded by a large number of Canucks fans as the ‘worst defenceman in the league’, it obviously doesn’t fill you with confidence. On top of this Gudbranson’s cap hit is hardly small or in any way equal to his ability, at $4million for another 2 years. It could be argued that the Gudbranson trade has been a decent one for the Penguins who were in need of some size and grit defensively, and his play has decidedly improved since moving from Vancouver. Despite this, the cap hit for him is much too large to justify for what he adds to the team, and having him and Johnson in the Pittsburgh top 6 defencemen has drastically slowed the pace at which the team can play due to their lack of mobility. A team that was prized for its speed and skill has had its identity ripped away by a seemingly incompetent GM.
Next up in this string of dodgy moves is the recent acquisition of Brandon Tanev in free agency. Tanev was a well-loved, hardworking forward while in Winnipeg, not the kind of player that put up great amounts of points. Jim Rutherford therefore decided to offer the 27-year-old $3.5million a year for 6 years, absolute madness for someone who will play 3rd or 4th line minutes and won’t produce heavily offensively. By the time the contract is up Tanev will be 33 and will probably be somewhat of a drain on the team. Contracts for players who play a particularly physical brand of hockey tend to not age well, as the player falls off a cliff ability-wise later on in their career. This also plays into the final issue that I have with what Rutherford is doing, signing players with large cap hits, a year before the contracts of so many players are up.
Signing players with 1 year left on their contract is always a risky move. Rutherford has traded for a couple with this problem, notably Kahun and Galchenyuk. Not only has he traded for them, there’s plenty on the roster already such as Jared McCann. These players need to be paid next year, and McCann is most likely going to ask for a raise if he continues his good form. Where is the money going to come from to pay these players? Signing the likes of Gudbranson and Johnson has eaten up cap space that could have been saved for the signing of free agents and better defencemen like Marcus Pettersson.
Rutherford is clearly trying to change the way that the Penguins play, making them quicker and harder to play against in the forward department. These trades and signings over the past two seasons though have been very confused and regrettable, wrecking the Penguins blue line. I haven’t brought up the Phil Kessel trade however, as I believe that it was a necessary one, as there have been rumours about Kessel’s personality issues everywhere he has played. The trade was needed in order to keep Mike Sullivan as coach, and Arizona was willing to give something back, and was somewhere that Kessel was willing to be traded to. Other than that Rutherford is taking apart the Penguins identity piece by piece, and unfortunately is wasting the final years of one of the best players to have played hockey, Sidney Crosby, by surrounding him with a number of players who just aren’t on his level.
Jon Parkin Sports 