The Pittsburgh Penguins will look to be active in the coming weeks

GMJR is looking to make some moves. Read about it here: https://t.co/WFqegftZBk

— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) June 18, 2018

This isn’t so much surprising as it is confirming that the Penguins will be looking to make improvements to the roster. I have some thoughts on a few of the Jim Rutherford quotes taken from this article

I’m not even really thinking about free agency right now

When you look at the UFA market it is easy to see why. Teams are getting better at being proactive about keeping their valuable players. Pittsburgh still has a deeper lineup than most and with that usually comes a cost of keeping that together. Pittsburgh doesn’t have flashy UFA money to spend even with the cap going up. Any significant changes are likely to come from trading and quite frankly that route usually pays better dividends than the UFA market anyways.

This doesn’t include the RFA’s which Jim Rutherford said he will be re-signing some of them. Daniel Sprong, Riley Sheahan, Bryan Rust, and Tristan Jarry lead that list.

Here’s the thing I don’t have to do anything. If I don’t do anything this summer, we’re still a contending team

While this statement is true I do think Rutherford has to have a better summer than he did last year. I get what he is saying. He isn’t just going to trade for the sake of trading which is how you end up with nonsensical roster moves. He does have to get creative and try to keep pace with some of the other teams in the East. The power shift to the Eastern Conference is real and there are a number of teams that the Penguins will have to navigate in order to get back to the Stanley Cup Final. The Penguins don’t have a first round pick this year because they used it to get Derick Brassard. That’s already an upgrade over what they used it on last year.

Rutherford is probably more likely to change things up with his forwards. He’s very pleased with his blue line

Recent hockey analysis is coming the conclusion that it isn’t defense that wins championships. Success usually stems from the forwards and as always the goaltender. The Penguins were proof positive of this in their two championship runs. In 2015-16 they swarmed teams and in 2016-17 their defense grouping was very underwhelming. It makes sense for Rutherford to target getting back to a stronger forward unit. Ryan Reaves is already gone. Tom Kuhnhackl and Carter Rowney need to join him. Riley Sheahan returning in a 4th line role would be a great start.

Thanks for reading!

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