The Penguins: Making the Grade – Part One

I dropped the ball at the half-point of the season. I got too busy and never had a chance to give my mid-season grades for the team. Now with only a handful of games left, I decided to do a series of articles giving my final grades for the team. Since we are now past the trade deadline and there is little a GM can do, I figured I would start here. Hopefully, no one will mind if I start this series now.

GM Jim Rutherford a C-

After a 2 year run of always seeming to make the right moves, the Penguins’ GM struggled this season. Over the last couple of months leading up to the trade deadline, he did make a bit of a comeback. However, the hole he dug himself starting way back at the last trade deadline was very, very deep.

Nobody can be expected to work 365 days a year. Everybody needs some vacation time. Everybody needs time to decompress. And let’s face it, Jim Rutherford, architect of the Penguins’ repeat Stanley Cup Championships, has earned himself a break. I wouldn’t begrudge him that. However, a 4 month hiatus, watching the team battle through the playoffs last year, may have been a bit too much.

After the trade deadline there isn’t much a GM can do to help his team during the current season, but that doesn’t mean that the GM can take the rest of the year off. That doesn’t mean that a GM can rest on his laurels until draft day or the first day of free agency. A 2, 3, or even 4 week vacation could be very reasonable, after the trade deadline passes. When April comes, though, it is time for a GM to start setting his team up for the next season.

Perhaps Rutherford did try and do just this (set the team up for the 2017-18 season). Unfortunately, there is no evidence to support that premise.

While (Sidney) Crosby and Co. chased that repeat Cup, it appears that Rutherford slept. There was no shortage of pending free agents (unrestricted UFA and restricted RFA) among the regular contributing players on last season’s roster. As the clock wound down and the curtain fell with the raising of the Cup, there was apparently no thought given to, or contingency plan made, for life without Nick Bonino, Matt Cullen, Trevor Daley, Chris Kunitz, or Ron Hainsey, as evidenced by the frantic running around like a chicken without its head opening day of free agency. Worse than that, Rutherford basically told those players to go look elsewhere, he wasn’t interested in talking to them.

Now I am not going to argue that the Penguins needed to keep any single one of those players. With so many teams learning from and copying the Penguins’ formula, team speed has become a must and would seem to preclude so many older players, even faster ones like Daley. Also, looking at what these players are doing this year, it may have been better that the Penguins let them go. The real problem came when they were replaced by the likes of Greg McKegg, Matt Hunwick and Antti Niemi. With all of the UFA out there; Dan Girardi, Andrei Markov to name two, all Rutherford was able to sign were 2 players no longer on the team – and one who is finally where he belongs, riding the bench.

Adding to this insult, Rutherford then turned around and paid Las Vegas a draft pick to take the best goalie in the expansion draft. Don’t get me wrong, as much as I like Marc-Andre Fleury, with the reality of modern hockey (from a financial/cap perspective) exposing Fleury to the draft was the right call, even with Vegas taking him. The problem comes with the Penguins ceding a draft pick to ensure this.

In a knee-jerk reaction to the playoff goon tactics inflicted upon the Penguins by their opponents, Rutherford went out and threw away a first round pick as well as an afterthought Center for pugilist extraordinaire Ryan Reaves. For a team that had a plethora of Right Wings (RW), Rutherford added another RW. With a quality young defenseman (Nicholas Hague) sitting out there waiting to be drafted and the Penguins in desperate need of quality Defensemen, Rutherford added to an area of strength while although not taking from an area of weakness, ignoring a chance to strengthening that weakness.

Making matters worse, the agent of rookie defenseman phenom, Will Butcher, just about begged Rutherford to come talk to him. He stated publicly that Butcher would be willing to make some concessions to be part of the Penguins. Unfortunately, Rutherford again showed no interest. Now Butcher is plying his trade against the Penguins for a team that seems to have the Penguins numbers this year, the New Jersey Devils.

Last I looked at Butcher, he has played 73 games, scored 3 goals and added 33 helpers while holding his +/- to even. Not bad for a rookie, left handed, D man on a young club, clawing its way out of obscurity. He is only 5’-10”, not my ideal defenseman, but compared to Matt Hunwick, Butcher’s performance is far and above.

As for Nicolas Hague (the player I advocated that the Penguins draft), he has played 67 games for Mississauga of the OHL notching 35 goals and adding 43 assists en route to a +2. More importantly, he is 6’-6” 214lbs, has collected 102 PIM this and also a left handed shot.

How good would both of those players look right now on the Penguins roster or in their organization?

Rutherford did resign RFAs Justin Schultz and Brain Dumoulin which did mitigate some of the really bad moves mentioned above, until the resigning of Conor Sheary for $3 million then sent the off-season back down into the Marianas Trench.

The only reason I do not give Rutherford a completely failing grade this year is that once the season started, he did begin digging the team out of the off-season hole. Although I wasn’t a fan of the Sheahan-Wilson trade when it happened, Riley Sheahan had really come into his own just prior to the trade deadline, including making some really sweet moves to score goals. Although I am pulling for him, the dumping of Derrick Pouliot was another positive move by Rutherford. Even if Andrey Pedan doesn’t work out, Pouliot was not going anywhere here and was taking up a contract spot. Furthermore, I do think if Mike Sullivan gives him a chance, Pedan will prove an asset to not only Wilkes-Barre Scranton, like he has this year, but to the big club as well. Finally, Rutherford’s dealing for Jamie Oleksiak at the behest of Sergei Gonchar was perhaps his (Rutherford’s) best move this year.

I do like Derick Brassard and think he may still show his benefit to the club and although the loss of Ian Cole and Ryan Reaves is most certainly weighing this club down, I don’t want to blame Rutherford on this one. It would seem that in the case of Cole, he was just doing what Mike Sullivan wanted him to do. And in the case of Ryan Reaves, from what I have heard, it was the league that forced the Penguins to add Reaves to the trade, saying the Penguins weren’t giving up enough.

The past is the past. Rutherford can’t fix things this year, but I sure hope he learns that he can’t wait until draft day to start working this year.