Penguins General Manager Jim Rutherford appeared on 937 The Fan this morning.

Here are some takeaways from the interview with The Fan Morning Show:

On Derick Brassard: Rutherford was asked early in the interview about Brassard’s future and when you have a player actively involved in trade talks like Brassard is right now, you’re going to coy as Rutherford was. “He’s [hide] our third line center,” said Rutherford. “He didn’t play last night because he has a minor injury and I’m not going to speculate beyond that (on his future),” said Rutherford.

On Amount of trade talks at this point of the year: “Pretty standard for this time of the year,” said Rutherford.

Despite known pursuit of Ferland, Rutherford defensive of chatter he’s motivated of adding players to combat Tom Wilson: “We do but we’re not going to build our team based on one team,” Rutherford said of Washington and Tom Wilson. “I will remind you we beat Washington two out of three years……We played best team in league [last night] and came at us with a lot of hits. Our team can played through that.”

Rutherford encouraged by Evgeni Malkin’s 200 ft game vs TBL: “Last night was a very encouraging,” said Rutherford. “Coming back deep. That line I thought Geno, Phil and Rust were very good at both ends.”

Seeing the obvious: “I think we’ve given up the most odd-man rushes in the league and that’s unacceptable,” Rutherford said. Rutherford was also critical about Penguins of consistency when it comes to having the right intensity on a nightly basis, saying they let a number of winnable games get away.

Myth’s surrounding needed adjustments for Pittsburgh’s high-risk power play. “He certainly helps,” Rutherford said of Justin Schultz when asked by the hosts of whether Schultz is what will fix the shorthanded goals against. “He’s a good player 5-on-5 and on the power play. We talk about fixing the power play….I think we’re sixth in the league on the power play……I’d be careful that we need to adjust much when we’re sixth in the league,” said Rutherford.

More Rutherford and hard to disagree with this one: “Giving up shorthanded goals just lack of effort, lack of focus. That one is very fixable. Just a matter of the guys being more conscious of what they want to do on the power play.”[/hide]