First, let me say that I am a huge Jim Rutherford fan simply because I think his role in everything good (and there is plenty despite the down times recently) is significant and underappreciated by many. If I owned the Carolina Hurricanes, I think I would have pushed him years ago to bring in more assistant GM talent from outside the Canes family, but I keep him right now if given the chance. But five years removed from the last great playoff run in 2009, I guess accountability comes into play and is at least partly the reason behind Jim Rutherford's resignation as Canes GM.

In other Canes news looking forward, I think this sets about a 7-day window (if it takes that long) to get a read on whether Muller stays or goes now that Ron Francis is officially in charge. I am on record as suggesting that he be fired. I think it is 50/50 on whether that happens.

Jim Rutherford played a significant role in building all of those successes, and for me the fact that he did it multiple times says that it was not random luck.

In his years as Canes GM, his strength was his uncanny ability to build teams capable of doing the unthinkable in the playoffs. His weakness seemed to be his inability to find a core set of players, a system or a process that could make the Canes regulars in the playoffs. Since moving to North Carolina, the Canes have made the playoffs only 5 times. But save for the 1st 2 appearances, when the team went it went full boar. When you net it out, the Rutherford years will be characterized by huge successes but lack of consistency. As a greedy fan, I want both obviously, but if forced to choose 1 or the other, I would keep exactly what we have - a handful of absolutely magical playoff runs.

In 2002, in the times of the big salary cap discrepancies across the league, Jim Rutherford quietly built a team capable of running all the way to the Stanley Cup finals with a bunch of step-wise ho-hum moves.

Before the season started, he picked up playoff-experienced Aaron Ward from Detroit for a 2nd round pick. In December, he traded Steve Halko and a 4th round pick to reacquire Sean Hill. Then in January, he somehow managed to unload Sandis Ozolinsh and his underperforming contract to land Bret Hedican with Kevyn Adams to boot. Finally, in March Jim Rutherford picked up Kevin Weekes for Chris Dingman and Shane Willis.

When it was all said and done, Jim Rutherford built half of his defensive corps and added a backup goalie and key depth forward for the grand total cost of 4th and 2nd round draft picks, 3 depth players who really did not have much of a role at the time and a bloated contract that needed to be dumped anyway. You could actually make a case that 4 of the defensemen were savvy Rutherford additions if you count the somewhat odd drafting of 25-year-old Niclas Wallin the summer before who adjusted to the NHL in this only his 2nd season.

The defense was key to the that season's playoff run. The group that featured no real stars or Norris type players was incredibly good down the stretch and in the playoffs. It was Rutherford's defense heavy on complimentary skill sets that enabled the team to hang around in playoff games long enough for miracles late, and oh there were miracles during that run.

In part 2 of this series, I will detail Rutherford's role in the 2006 Stanley Cup win. This run featured even more of Rutherford at his best assembling a team on the cheap.

Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63

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