“I didn’t mind that people knew we wanted Phil because by that point we were far enough along in the talks with Toronto and I felt like we could get a deal done.” “We had kept a lid on it in the weeks leading up to the draft, but once we got down (to Florida), I guess the cat was out of the bag,” Rutherford said. Working with Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan and then assistant GM Kyle Dubas, Rutherford had opened talks aimed at bringing Phil Kessel to the Penguins. In the weeks leading up to that draft, Rutherford had kept to himself the details of a potential deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs. “By that point, I thought we were close enough to a deal that I wanted everybody’s opinion. Had Rutherford gone through with it, there’s no telling if any of his likely successors - associate GM Jason Botterill or assistant GMs Tom Fitzgerald and Bill Guerin - would have gone about chasing the trade that changed everything during the 2015 offseason. Toward the end of it, with the Penguins scuffling their way into the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot, Rutherford briefly considered resigning his post. Whatever the reasons, nothing seemed to go Rutherford’s way during his first season in Pittsburgh. Not his fault was a midseason mumps outbreak. That was on him, and Rutherford acknowledged the mistake at a season-ending meeting with the media. He swung a trade-deadline deal that put the Penguins at risk of exceeding the cap, leaving them able to play only five defensemen for the final weeks of the regular season. Those deals didn’t pay immediate dividends.Īs he learned on the go how to manage a franchise that spent to the cap, Rutherford lived through some circumstances that he could and couldn’t control in 2014-15. It was the first of seven trades Rutherford made in his first season with the Penguins. His first trade sent James Neal, a former 40-goal scorer, to the Nashville Predators for a return that included Patric Hornqvist, a power forward that Rutherford assessed as a better fit for tight-checking, low-scoring, postseason-style hockey. Never one to shy away from making trades, Rutherford tried moves to better position the Penguins for playoff success from the moment he was hired. I was looking for another player who could score some big goals.” “After my first season in Pittsburgh, I really believed we had to take pressure off those two, especially in the playoffs. That team had other guys chipping in, so there wasn’t as much pressure on Sid and Geno. “They were outstanding against us when I was in Carolina,” Rutherford said. Crosby and Malkin teamed for eight goals and 15 points in that series to leave Rutherford with a lasting impression. His last postseason run in Carolina was ended by the Penguins - a lopsided 2009 conference final in which the Hurricanes were swept in large part because of the Penguins’ so-called Two-Headed Monster at center. The Penguins had hired Rutherford after his long stint as GM with the Carolina Hurricanes. “I saw it with my own eyes a few years earlier.” “I had these two young stars, and I knew they were difference makers,” Rutherford said. They were the Penguins with the highest profiles, in addition to counting the most against the salary cap. Rutherford saw for himself that the Penguins’ postseason struggle was real, as the Penguins scored only a goal in each of their four defeats against the Rangers in a 2015 opening-round series.Ī lot of GMs might have put the blame on Crosby and Malkin. The Bruins (2013) and Rangers (2014, 2015) had taken turns stifling the Penguins’ high-powered attack, limiting the team to a goal or less in 11 of 16 games in those losing series. In the three series lost by the Penguins in those postseasons, Crosby and Malkin combined for six goals and seven points. ![]() In their postseason disappointments from 2013-15, one of the Penguins’ prime problems was obvious for anybody that could read a scoresheet. However, the Penguins had also reached only one conference final in the years since their 2009 championship, and ownership believed it was at risk of wasting the prime seasons of centerpieces Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. He was tasked by ownership with returning the Penguins to Stanley Cup contender status, even though the team had reached the second round and conference final in its previous two seasons. Rutherford supplanted Ray Shero as GM in June 2014.
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