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The NHL is a copy cat league. Jim Rutherford had disastrous first season as Penguins General Manager that was plagued by a bad coaching hire, no plan, no identity, and mis-management of the cap. Things got tenuous where Rutherford being fired after one year and the Penguins promoting Tom Fitzgerald was mulled internally at one point before a prominent figure in the organization was talked out of it.
That is now ancient history as Rutherford has had quite the turnaround in year 2 and will be given the opportunity to have his contract extended this summer beyond the 2016-2017 season, sources say. Rutherford’s current contract ends after next season.
The most important thing that happened for the Penguins was the organization regrouped in a big way last summer in everyone getting on board regarding what type of hockey club the Penguins wanted to build.
As the organization went through their pro scouting meetings last summer, the consensus they kept coming up with was building a team in the mold of the Tampa Bay Lightning — A four line skilled team that overwhelms you with speed and skill –.
That meant sending the likes of Max Lapierre, Daniel Winnik out the door.
We all know the perfect storm finally came together after the coaching change, a few trades, and injuries opening the door for the Wilkes Barre guys, but a big difference from year 1 Rutherford to Year 2 Rutherford is he stayed with a plan from start to finish.
Now the Penguins are seeing the pay off.
What tilted the Penguins – Capitals series was the Penguins having more skilled depth from their second and third tier level players. Will be interesting if Washington takes a page out of Pittsburgh’s book and goes away from players like Mike Richards who can no longer create offensively and look for more of the Cullen/Bonino types.
Early in his tenure as Penguin General Manager, Ray Shero ended up benefitting in a big way from Craig Patrick’s final four to five drafts — Sidney Crosby (no-brainer), Evgeni Malkin, Marc Andre Fleury, Brooks Orpik, Tyler Kennedy, Max Talbot, Kris Letang, Alex Goligoski among them —
For Jim Rutherford it’s been the same thing with less impact guys and there’s more coming with team officials giddy about 2013 third round pick Jake Guentzel who some in the organization believe is the club’s best forward prospect not Daniel Sprong.
2010 Draft: 2 NHL Players have emerged this season in Bryan Rust, Tom Kuhnhackl
2011 Draft: Scott Wilson would be a regular in the lineup right now if not injured. Josh Archibald has a chance to be an NHL player in this system, Dominik Uher a tweener.
2012 Draft: Olli Maatta, Derrick Pouliot, Matt Murray are legit NHL players, Murray already emerging as a star. Oskar Sundqvist on the cusp of being a regular NHL player.
2013 Draft: Jake Guentzel has a strong chance of being an impact NHL player in next couple years. Tristan Jarry projects as a capable No. 2 NHL starter.
Teams always hope for 2-3 players from each draft to develop into NHL players. Penguins have accomplished that over the past several drafts.
— The Penguins last summer wanted to be the Tampa Bay Lightning in the makeup of their team and interesting enough they get to faceoff with the Lightning in Round 3 for a chance to return to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in seven years.
In the Conference Finals, the player Penguin fans should be worrying more about returning is Anton Stralman than Steven Stamkos. Stralman returning and playing to his ability will have a bigger impact in the Lightning being able to match up against the Penguins favorably.
With so much focus on Crosby and Malkin, Washington didn’t have the personnel to match up against the Bonino line. If Stralman is back, Tampa Bay will be much more equipped than the Capitals were.
Jonathan Drouin’s emergence has kind of eased the loss of Stamkos for the Lightning.
Stamkos remains on blood thinners but as soon as he gets off them, he can return to the lineup immediately. His status will be a mystery all series.
— Former Penguins coach Mike Johnston has rejoined the Portland Winterhawks organization as head coach/GM. Johnston did not interview with any NHL clubs for a head coach opening but had some discussions with the Vancouver Canucks about joining their organization in some capacity. Johnston was a top contender for the Canucks job in 2014 before Willie Desjardins turned down the Penguins.
Johnston is owed around $650,000 from the Penguins in 2016-2017.
— Nick Bonino is earning himself quite the pay-day on his next contract and for Pittsburgh you have to wonder if jumping the gun on giving Olli Maatta a six year deal complicates things to keep some of the core second tier level players like Trevor Daley and Bonino around after next season.
Getting Chris Kunitz off the books after the 2016-2017 season will help, along with cheap labor in the likes of Daniel Sprong, Jake Guentzel also being likely contributors in the couple years, but the Penguins easily could have did a bridge deal for Maatta and get a couple more cheap years out of him than buying for the future.
Internally for now, those close to the situation are adamant that Marc Andre Fleury To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
I see npl you are doing good in the Bracket challenge on the nhl site
btw who is ZTD
Just scrolled through all the posts. Everybody is a 0 or -1….except Maloni and Sam. Those two are in cahoots!
Sam, you excited about the Raptors? I guess it takes a team full of black americans to show you canadians what winning in the playoffs is like.
Isn’t that the case when it comes to hockey for many years since 93 you have Canadians building the sport in US
https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-10/13/12/enhanced/webdr12/anigif_enhanced-9171-1444753536-2.gif
Your so funny that I forgot to laugh bro
That thumbs down really showed him. +1 for you Sam!
hahaha. you really are 12.
What is the salary cap issue with the Penguins? I keep doing the math and can’t find one.
If you want to talk about moving useless salaries, you need to find a way to dump Fehr and the 2 million hit. He’s easily replaced in the bottom 6 by bargains in Wilson, Kuhnhackl, Rust, Sundqvist at ~$.65 million.
In my mind, the questions that need answered that will drive what they can do for free agents is, will Pouliot be able to develop as a defenseman in the 5/6 role with Cole as a money saving move? Will Sprong be able to step in and play a wing with Malkin/Crosby? Does Cullen want to play another year after winning the cup this year, or is Oscar the new 4th line center?
Kunitz-Crosby-Hornqvist, Wilson-Malkin-Sprong, Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel, Kuhnhackl-Fehr-Rust…taxi of Porter and Sundqvist. Letang-Maatta, Daley-Dumoulin, Cole-Pouliot taxi of X, Fleury-Murray = a $60 million payroll. You have at least $10 million to sign free agent to upgrade depth defenseman or get Malkin a better winger. So I ask again, where is this cap issue that we need to dump Malkin, Fleury, and others?
I haven’t done the math but the only subtractions I see are that of Lovejoy, Cullen and Bennett. Replacing Sheary with Wilson. Am I missing someone? If that’s the case then how are we up against the cap this year if you are only removing $4 million in salary and have $10 million left?
And that doesn’t take into account that Maatta’s cap hit goes up by $3 million next year.
I don’t know where you guys are coming up with $60 million – but they’re also not in dire straits. I calculate $69 million ($68.931 Mio) to be exact, which still leaves them wiggle room with the presumed cap projection out there. That doesn’t include any kind of contract for Schultz or Bennett, but Bennett is a question mark to be back at a minimum, and Schultz will likely have to go UFA and re-sign here that way, because they’re not qualifying him at $3.9 Mio. Also includes Scuderi’s buyout of $1.125 Mio.
Thats why he chane name to samtheman because his bf michael sam is the man in relayshinship
This is the front runner for post of the year.
I’ve been away for awhile but Sam the Idiot is still going strong I see. No wonder there is no good hockey talk on here anymore. Why does it matter if someone wants to play for their country? I sure enjoyed the American Kessel light the lamp last night!
He and Yodles are pretty maddening..
they really dont waste time http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/alex-ovechkin-world-championships-1.3576816
now watch and see Kuznetsov do good there
i called it!!…..now name the canadian players who go over to it and condemn them as well
yeah team canada with half the roster wont even make canadas 3rd team roster if there was WC in Fall or olympics
Crosby went last year immediately after they lost…and he would again this year
yeah 2 times in his career one was in his rookie year and last one was last year while ovi 12 Times
Still dont get your point…..they are ELIMINATED therefor theres no more NHL games to be played….why is it a bad thing again?
He’s an idiot. You can never get a logical answer. He will reply “Russian only care about country and selfish”, or something along those lines.
its too soon to move fleury you bandwagnons
what guaranties Murray can play 60 games a year and come playoff is not tired ?
he already gave few soft goals in short span of time in playoffs imagine if he is the guy to play all season and imagine he gets injured
I am not saying he suckss but he is not ready and its not time yet
Murray is clearly not ready for this. #SamKnew
If they’re in “win-now” mode, and I believe they are, moving Fleury this summer…doesn’t seem like a prudent thing to do as far as I’m concerned. You have a stranglehold on depth in goal. You can win with either guy. So you move Fleury when it makes sense – i.e. when Murray needs a second contract and is going to get paid, or when you’re faced with losing Fleury in an expansion draft. Whichever comes first.
With the Vegas arena already open I could see the expansion draft taking place in 2017 so I guess the pens need to figure if they want to go with depth next year or see if they can get some assets for Fleury and some cap space or wait until the expansion draft and let him go for nothing if someone takes him. Guessing Fleury won’t get a lot in return for a trade so it just depends if they want the goaltending depth or the cap space.
I don’t know how you carry both. It’s not like a “platoon” catching rotation. One guy is going to have to sit more than is good for him (or team). I don’t think they move Fleury this summer either but they should.
Keeping him is good as it will give us depth at the position. I just like the idea of getting cap space to use in other areas but you do take the gamble if he is injured or gets injured in playoffs. Will be interesting to see what young guys come out of camp and make the team if any. I’m sure Calgary would give us something as their goalies suck!
do you honestly think some team will be willing to take on his contract? i don’t know….
Want to bet $1,000 on that?
Dallas is very interested I would be willing to add to the $1000.00 bet!!! 😉
Fleury is my favorite player but I would move him for the cap space. That $4M would go a long way for signing other players and upgrading the D.
Trading Maf has to happen this summer. They no choice but to remove that contract and go with murray and jarry
Trade Fleury and Malkin and cap problem solved.
What cap problem?
Cant wait for sam to come on here and talk about ovie going to play in the WC like it means anything more than a player being eliminated so he goes off and plays in the WC just like any canadian player would do as well….
Any canadian player from any canadian team was there from the beginning this year.
could have did
can move st.bleury. too much marketing and propaganda money spent on him.
Guy – do you think now is the time to listen to sam and bench “chubby,” our leading playoff point getter? Discuss. #America