Now it is time to wrap up this series. It is time to grade the Coaching and GM – as if you readers can’t guess my opinions.
The GM;
Jim Rutherford started the 2018-2019 season off with several clunker moves before the preseason with very suspect Free Agent (FA) signings. Jack Johnson was not the worst Defenseman on the team. He did improve his game as the season progressed, but even looking at Johnson’s 5 on 5 Corsi numbers from January 1st onward, they still were horrible (44.8%). With Rutherford‘s signing of Matt Hunwick to a bad contract in 2017-2018, you could have been forgiven if you thought the GM was caught in his own “Groundhog Day”.
Rutherford‘s rocky start also included signing Matt Cullen, Derek Grant, Jimmy Hayes, and Juuso Riikola. If you add all of those FA contributions to the team together they played 215 games for the parent club (Hayes didn’t play any NHL games at all), scored 12 Goals (G), had 31 Assists (A), combined for a +8, with composite Corsi of 41.8%. Rutherford struck out looking in the FA market.
Once the season started, and the team was foundering, the Penguins‘ executive finally went to work on making some trades. Carl Hagelin wasn’t scoring. He only had 1 G and 2 A in the 1st 16 GP. However he was certainly a super asset with his speed and defensive ability, skating on the Evgeni Malkin/Phil Kessel line, freeing those 2-stars to do what they do best – score!! Rutherford got Tanner Pearson in the swap, who was an upgrade in offense scoring 9 G in 44 GP but who added to the Penguins‘ defensive woes with a -6 over that time. When the honeymoon phase of that trade faded Pearson was then flipped to Vancouver for Erik Gudbranson.
Had Rutherford not traded Jamie Oleksiak back to Dallas for a 4th round pick about a month earlier, I may have given the Penguins the edge in that trade. However, Rutherford‘s shipping of the “Big Rig” out of Pittsburgh made the acquisition of Gudbranson pretty much an even up trade.
Fortunately for the Penguins, Rutherford did end up making a couple of trades that did improve the team a little. Even though Daniel Sprong scored more goals than many players on the final roster, Sprong was one of a laundry list of players that ran afoul of Mike Sullivan, so he never got a chance. Getting anything for Sprong represented an upgrade to a roster spot that was never going to get used. So, when Rutherford acquired Marcus Pettersson it couldn’t help but be an upgrade. Furthermore, even though Pettersson is only 22 and made some rookie mistakes he did play better than several veterans, making this trade a win.
Rutherford also made a very significant trade at the trade deadline, acquiring a couple of young Centers; Jared McCann and Nick Bjugstad for Derik Brassard and Riley Sheahan. Not only did this trade represent a win for the Penguins, it may have helped clean up some serious mistakes Rutherford made last year. That trade also saved Rutherford‘s grade for this year.
In the end, I have to give Rutherford a C for the regular season.
For the playoffs, he gets an F. I know there are some readers here who still have Mike Sullivan colored glasses on. Reality set in on me some time back. For the last 2 years, Sullivan has been having problems with one player after another. The signs were there but Rutherford ignored them. It should not have come as a surprise to anyone that the team gave up on him in the playoffs. Rutherford should have fired Sullivan back in December.
The Coach;
After what I just said, I might as well get straight to grading Mike Sullivan, He gets an F for the regular season and an F for the playoffs.
Sullivan was a passenger on the bus that won 2 Cups. It is becoming more and more apparent that the most important coach on those Cup winning teams was Rick Tocchet. Since Tocchet‘s departure, the only adjustments Sullivan makes on the team is shuffling the lines and Defense pairings and he does that with maddening regularity.
Some team PR people try to get fans to think that this is evidence that Sullivan is making adjustments. This is not making adjustments. This is more like being a glorified baby sitter or hall monitor. It is a sign of a coach who doesn’t have any answers after his schemes have become hackneyed and over used. It is a sign that a coach has no plan B when the rest of the league adjusts to his A game.
I love the speed game that Sullivan brought to Pittsburgh in 2015-2016 but he has added no new wrinkles to his game, therefore he has become the biggest reason for the relative lack of speed displayed over these last couple of years. Yes, most of the players aged a little and may have lost a tiny fraction of speed, but opponents can look a whole lot faster when they know exactly where you are trying to push the puck,
Furthermore, Sullivan evidenced his lack of coaching acumen near the end of the season when he was quoted in an interview about Malkin‘s late season slump, he said something to the effect that he wasn’t worried. He said Malkin would work his way out of the funk. Part of the definition of coaching is helping athletes in finding ways to overcome slumps and improve their game.
Perhaps the worst of Sullivan‘s attributes is how he interacts with his players.
Sullivan the hypocrite.
After the Capitals dumped our Penguins from the 2017-2018 playoffs, Sullivan whined about Kessel to the media. This year both he and Rutherford cried that none of the players did what Sullivan wanted them to do. Yet, back in December of this year, at the height of the Dupuis-gate controversy they complained that what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room. They set the expectation, what did they think would happen. And then after complaining about Dupuis-gate, they still didn’t do as they said.
The second problem I have with Rutherford and Sullivan whining, I mentioned several articles back when they fired their first posterior covering volley, a good coach and a good GM may take individual players task behind closed doors but they do not air their dirty laundry in the media. Both Rutherford and Sullivan know in their heart of hearts that they are the ones to blame but are wasting time and energy trying to deflect the blame rather than fix the problem, exacerbating their already severely diminished credibility with their players. No matter who they get rid of and bring in, how can any player trust their own Coach and GM?
The 3rd problem with all of this whining in the media goes back to something I wrote in December as the body count to Sullivan‘s antagonism began to mount; when there is a problem between 1 player and a coach there is a 50-50 chance that it is that player. However, with every player that seems to go into that coaches dog house, the probabilities shift to the problem being the coach. When no player on the team shows up for a single game in the playoffs and the team gets swept and the coach whines that no one wants to buy what he is selling there is no longer a question, it is the coach.
Among the players that is now being cited as not getting with Sullivan‘s program. Yet Letang averaged his 2nd highest regular season ice time per game in 14 seasons and his 3rd highest ice time average over 10 playoff years. If Letang wasn’t buying in, why did he get so much ice time. Don’t get me wrong, I was not a fan of Letang‘s defensive game this year, but Sullivan was the one responsible for putting him out there.
The buck has to stop on the Coach and he flunked horribly!!!!!
Next Season?
If the ownership group is buying the garbage Sullivan and by extension Rutherford is selling, then even though I bleed Black-and-Gold, I will lose more than a little respect for their ability to evaluate their own team.
I have repeated this refrain multiple times here and will so again, you can’t get rid of a whole team. If there is a problem between the coach and the players, you have to sacrifice the coach. A team can’t keep changing large portions of its roster every season because the coach can’t get along with his players.
There is a lot of media spin trying to make Malkin a scapegoat. Malkin has 3 Cups and a Conn Smythe to his name. He has earned his keep. Sullivan road the coat tails of a perfect 2015-217 storm that included not only Malkin, at least 1 other futures Hall of Fame player but several other top stars and real coach (Rick Tocchet). Sullivan is far more expendable than Malkin!!! If Malkin would decide he wanted to leave (tired of the tyrant Sullivan’s blaming others for his failures), that would be a different story, but as it is, Malkin like Crosby, should retire a Penguin
Furthermore, in today’s Hockey, you need depth at Center if you want to compete. There aren’t too many Centers out there that the Penguins will be able to get to replace Malkin. Toronto isn’t likely to trade us Austin Matthews or John Tavares, nor is Edmonton likely to trade us Connor McDavid.
After 2 poor to mediocre off seasons of resting on his laurels, Rutherford‘s job security should also be very precarious. Hockey is a business. Rutherford‘s track record has been declining since the playoff run began for the 2nd of back-to-back Cups when he sat around doing nothing rather than preparing for the expansion draft, entry draft and FA losses that year.
Now with him whining about star players to protect a very average coach, Rutherford is making a good case for his termination. He should have been interviewing new coaching candidates rather than making not so veiled threats against Malkin and campaigning to protect a Coach who has lost his team! My 2 cents, Rutherford gets the sack as well and Bill Guerin gets promoted to GM.
Start 2019-2020 with a new Coach and GM, then really start looking at player moves.
Hey Jim,
I thought I would answer you in a new thread, the last one was getting a little too narrow, making even short replies looking longer.
Agreed, the Penguins desperately need to get a top 5 pick. And although they need one and I would love to get one, getting it is a problem. Getting 1 of those top 5 picks would require the Penguins to trade a high end player.
Crosby and Malkin have NMCs – They cannot be traded, waived, or sent to the minors without their consent. So unless Crosby or Malkin say yes to a trade, they are going no where. I may be wring but I can’t picture Crosby okaying a trade to any of those teams. Out of NJD, NYR, CHB, COL, or LAK, I would think that the only 2 teams that Malkin may waive his NMC for would be NYR or LAK. And with the need for Center depth in the NHL in today’s hockey, unless I get Hughes in the Draft, I don’t trade either.
Kessel has a M-NYC. According to Capfriendly he has to submit a list of 8 teams to which he will go. Maybe Colorado bites on him if they fail to make the finals and think that a 2nd veteran top 6 RW is needed and they have or can create the space after they resign Rantanen. They currently have a hair under $11 million in Cap space for next year and Rantanen will eat up much of that space. So, if Kessel is willing to go here the Pens maybe be able to trade up and I would take Podokolzn if possible, Byram if Podokolzn is off of the boards.
If I was able to swing a deal for Kessel to Col I would more than likely have to flip picks as well but would ask for Col 2nd round pick. With that pick I would hope for one of the following to still be available (in order of preference): Ryan Johnson LHD, Isaiah Saville (G), Brayden Tracey (LW who played with Almeida), or Kayden Korchak (RHD)
According to Capfriendly Letang would be the easiest to trade (of the biggest contracts) he submits an 18 team trade list. With Hischier and $14 mil in Cap space, maybe they would be willing to flip picks for Letang? but I doubt it. As I noted, the NHL has become a league where you need 2 top flight Centers and NJD would probably be thinking keep the pick and have both Hughes and Hischier and then try and sign Karlsson.
With Shattenkirk, I don’t see NYR wanting to take on Letang too. Besides they only have $3 mil to work with. Same thing with CHB, with only $3 mil and Seabrook and Duncan already, I can’t see them flipping picks for Letang.
I don’t see Col biting on Letang at all, nor do I see LAK since they have Doughty.
If I can’t get a trade up in the draft; I hope Boldy is still available. In some of the Mock Drafts I have seen he is still on the boards. Most experts think Suzuki will go somewhere between 13-18 but if he is available, I would consider him. I do think our Penguins are very deep at Center but who knows, he could beat out Bjugstad for 3rd line Center. But then again, Bellerive could as well.
With the absolute dearth of goalies in the Penguins system, fialing to get Boldy or York I may opt to take Spencer Knight. Apparently he is going to play in the NCAA so there would still be 3 or 4 years before the Pens could really see him, but with Murray, they do have time to wait for another number one, their real need at G is depth.
Thanks Coach.
Agreed, it will be tough and Geno will only move if he wants to.
Unless we bite the bullet now and move Kessel, Letang and others for elite level talent we will be in the same situation next year. Only worse.
Jim
Hi TOR!
I really enjoyed reading The Frustration series! It has given me a very good perspective of the 2018-2019 season. Congrats for a job well done!
I agree with most of your points raised in the article. I was pretty disappointed in the coaching staff this year. Players certainly have their share of the blame but as you mentioned, I just couldn’t believe that the coach and the GM threw the team under bus without taking any responsibility for this roller coaster season!
What kind of message are they sending to the players? If I were a player of this team, I would say something like: they’re blaming us but they don’t look themselves in the mirror. Yeah, you bet I will work my ass off for them next year!!
If the status quo is maintained, the team’s atmosphere will be awful and a wee bit toxic. I really hope that GMJR will manage the changes wisely in a sustainable manner. Speaking of GMJR, I thought that his contract extension was not a very good idea. He made some good trades but he sacrificed a lot of prospects. The 2019 NHL draft will be very important for the Pens. Refurbishing a prospect pool can take some time, that is one more reason why they must make smarter choices for the future.
Thanks Jorenz!
100% spot on, the 2019 draft is very important. Unfortunately, at the moment the Penguins only have a 1st, a 4th, a 5th, and 2 7th. It is 5 picks with one being a 1st round pick and our 4th round pick being Buffalo’s 4th round pick from the Sheary/Hunwick deal. I wish Sheary would have gotten those 6 extra goals so that we could have had Buffalo’s 3rd round pick instead.
Although our Pens will be getting their picks a lot earlier this year, and they have a 1st round pick, this years draft may not be much better than last years drat when they only had 4 picks; Addison and Halllander in the 2nd round, Almieda in the 5th and Gorman in the 6th. The extra picks seem to all be later round picks and they are a crap shoot. Even 1st and 2nd round picks aren’t locks.
I would love to see the Penguins fund a way to trade off some of their salary for draft picks but I am not holding my breath. There isn’t a prayer that they could trade all the way up to Hughes, and as much as I would love to see the Penguins to start grooming a top Center it isn’t as imperative as the other positions. I would even want to groom a new back-up goalie before Center.
I did see an early Mock draft for the Penguins that had them taking Cam York (5’11”, 170 lb, LHD) in the 1st, Dillon Hamaliuk (6’1″ 201lb LW ) in the 4th, Semyon Chistyakov (5’10” 163lb LHD) in the 5th, and Kyle Topping (5’11” 185lb C) in the 7th.
I would have like to see them find a way to trade down to get either Podkolzin or Boldy.
In the end I am not all that confident in GMJR anymore. I do think there is more than a good chance that instead of trading for Picks and prospects he will trade them away. Furthermore even if he didn’t throw them away and he gets his way with Sullivan still being here at the start of the season any draft picks will just wilt on the vine. On more than one occasion he has pathetically said he doesn’t have time to bring kids along.
Hi TOR!
You mention 5 picks but I heard it can be up to 8 picks. Can you confirm?
Hey Jorenz,
I am not sure where they are getting 8 picks unless someone is counting on the Penguins trading some of their veterans for picks.
As far as I know this is how it stacks up
1st Rnd – We retained
2nd Rnd – Panthers get for McCann/Bjugstad
3rd Rnd – Sens get for Brassard
4th Rnd Panthers get for McCann/Bjugstad
4th Rnd Buf – We get for Sheary/Hunwick
4th Rnd Wild – Convoluted path eventually traded for McCann/Bjugstad
5th Rnd We Ratain
6th Rnd – Traded to Ariz for Leighton
7th Rnd – We retain
7th Rnd Vegas – We get for our 7th last year
Hi Coach,
Just want echo Ricks previous comments.This Frustration series has been terrific and a lot of hard work and time has gone into them.Well done my friend! Your writing has come along ways in just 2 years. Honestly this is as good a piece of investigative sports journalism as I have ever read. A 10 !!
Like any great piece of work, their authors usually want feed back from the readers.This is why we do what we do. Here goes…
Fire Sullivan. I agree. But for a different reason.I firmly believe that the NHL has learned as a league from the Pens 2016 and 2017 Cup wins. The game has evolved.I personally do not think some of your readers get that point.I know by his actions Coach Sullivan does not get it. Being fast is not good enough now. Most teams are fast. Puck movement. Again most teams can move the puck faster than they did 5 years ago. Power plays.They have evolved as well.
It is almost a throwback to an earlier era whereby the great teams all had big d men that could fire the puck from the point and the Goalie did not even see it with screens set in front of him. 5 0n 5 Hockey. Being able to win a 3-2 hockey game in a defensive battle. The game has changed and our Coach has not.
Therefore Sullivan has to go . I agree with you.
The real question becomes do we have the right pieces on our team now to win in the new NHL 2020 ? Are we big enough? Can we play a punishing 60 minute hockey game over an 80 plus game regular season, then have enough left for a deep play off run? Answer is NO ! We just got swept 4 to Zip !Their 4th line shut down our best. Look what Carolina is doing to Islanders now in round 2. Swarming all over them. Truthfully we could not match them either.
This is reality. We need a big wake up call.
Personally I do not believe current Ownership will allow any GM to trade away the necessary pieces for a successful rebuild of our Pens. Therefore I do not fault Jimmy. This win now at all costs attitude has finally caught up with us. We have caused this to happen.So for me it does not matter who is the GM is as his hands are tied.
The Pens will NOT risk the obvious and we will be here again next year.
I want to be wrong Coach, Please…. but it does not look good for us to win it all in 2020.
Your thoughts… Jim
Thanks Jim,
You are right, I love to hear what others are thinking, that is why I write.
I do agree with you. The league has learned from the Pens and Sullivan hasn’t adapted, that is one of his big problems. But I see far more warts as well.
I also agree, I don’t see the ownership doing what it needs to do. The team does need to get bigger. I am tired of them picking the smaller player over the bigger when everything else is relatively equal.
I am also tired of them picking the older player over the younger player even when the younger player is better because they were afraid of losing so they stopped trying to win.
I wish we were wrong. I wish they would actually learn from their mistakes rather than just making excuses.
Talking about Carolina, not only are they younger, making them faster, they believe in their coach, something the entire Penguin squad doesn’t that is why the Penguins had so much trouble with them all season and why they would have gotten smoked even if they had made the second round.
Hey Coach,
As a Penguins fan from a far sometimes I am able to have a different perspective than the locals. Due to health issues I cannot write at this time although my heart wants to 200%. I thought a good article would be for someone to write on the remaining eight teams briefly. Taking note of what they all have in common, and what we are lacking as a Penguins team to compete in 2020. Most obvious to me is the fact that many of the remaining 8 teams have a Defense that can move the puck as a 5 man unit.
Secondly, a lot of them have a system and they are following their system. They can adapt to any opponent.
Next obvious point is they have a 20 man roster and on different nights a different 5 man unit shines.Reminds me of the 2016 win by the Pens with HBK line and Cullen’s 4 th line. Everyone contributes.
By comparing these traits of the remaining 8 teams you can overlay them with our weaknesses and highlight what we need to change for 2020.
Keeping in mind that at least 4 teams, all better than the pens,got beaten and they will be back next year stronger than ever.
Just an idea my friend.
Sometimes you have to see the big picture to realize how to win the prize.
I’m very interested to see what others have to say about your article above and thanks again for the terrific work.
Let’s go Pens 2020!😀
Hey Jim,
Not a bad idea at all (comparing the Pens to the remaining teams)
and as I ponder this idea, we could expand it to to not only include a comparison of the current Pens squad with the 8 2nd round contestants but look at the differences between the 2015-2016 Pens Cup team to the 2018-2019 version of the Pens and the elite 8 of the 2018-2019 season.
Hopefully my honey do list will be short enough to not only start looking at this but get at least something down on “paper” so to speak.
speaking of 2020 and just throwing this out there to get people thinking – who do draft if you are JR? Obviously the closer we get to the entry draft things can and probably will change – but who would you really like? and who do you think the team will realistically go after?
With an aging Crosby and Malkin and the need for depth at Center in the modern NHL, would you want Hughes or do you trust that Crosby and Malkin can guide you another couple of years and try and get a real natural winger for a change to help them? A big defenseman?
Hey Coach,
Who do we draft? That is a great question.
I think an even better question would be HOW ??
Playing arm chair GM as we love to do this past 2 years I conclude we need to secure a top 5 pick? New Jersey with Ray Shero would be my first stop given his long standing relationships with many of our players. Forget the Rangers or Chicago.They are not giving up their first round picks at #2 and # 3 respectively.Colorado at #4 with all their great young talent both playing now in the NHL and in their minor system, would be the next logical choice to pursue.Keeping in mind what ever we trade,we need more back in terms of numbers. If we trade one roster player we need a roster player back as well as a high draft pick.
My thoughts were to trade Malkin and maybe LeTang if needed to New Jersey for Taylor Hall and their number one pick in 2019 and draft Hughes.Second choice is to trade Malkin and LeTang to Colorado for RFA big right winger Mikko Rantanen and with their 4th over all pick,draft big Center man Dylan Cozens, 6’3″,185 pounds,very fast skater for a big boy.
If Chicago does take Cozens first then the Russian right winger, rated # 3 over all would fall to us, Vasilli Podkolzin…Could have the most upside of any player in the draft.
Next comes LA at number 5. I would see if I could trade Kessel, Mattaa and my 19th? pick for their 5th and 36th picks.Add a few throw in pieces, some cash if need be, and then draft defense man Bowem Byram, rated first over all as a d man.6′ 195 # and is an offensive wizard. Our new Kris Letang. With the all important 36th pick I would draft the top goalie prospect available.There are several to choose from.
Then I would get busy in free agency and try to sign a top center man, a d man and maybe an affordable short term goalie to split duties with Murray.
The rest Johnson, Hornqvist and all the others would be dealt with on a individual basis. Try to get younger, bigger, faster or at least secure more 2nd round picks or higher if possible.
That is my story for today Coach.. How about you ?
Jim