Penguins former General Manger Jim Rutherford has been hired by the Vancouver Canucks to be their team President and “interim… general manager. The Canucks need a new direction and they will 100% get one. They will probably get ten different directions in the next few years. Per Josh Yohe of The Athletic Jim Rutherford averaged over one trade per month as Penguins GM.
First, we’ll see how the “interim… tag plays out. Rutherford is someone who loves control. During his tenure the Penguins assistant general manager depth dwindled as the years went on with no replacements. This continued up until the time he quit on the team because he was losing full control over the entire operation. He left the team scrambling for a replacement because he never intended to mentor one who would take over for him. So forgive me for being skeptical on that “interim… tag. He was only supposed to be in Pittsburgh for the short term after all…
As for the roster the Canucks are not in a great spot. They do have some talent in Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, JT Miller, Brock Boeser, and others. However, they don’t have any cap space.. They do have the 7th ranked prospect pool per The Athletic, but for how long. Jim Rutherford’s “secret… formula is to burn through futures while tinkering, not necessarily, improving the current roster. I would be floored if Rutherford committed to a rebuild actually using the prospects and futures in-house instead of trading them away.
Brandon Sutter and Kasperi Kapanen probably shouldn’t get too comfortable where they are. If it is true that certain things come in threes then Brandon Sutter is about to be looking for new property and Kasperi Kapanen will be heading to the Pacific Northwest.
I do think Rutherford is an upgrade on Jim Benning because he was comically horrible at his job. At least Rutherford mixes in a good move or two even if they are undone with the next move or two he makes. I also think the hiring of Bruce Boudreau is the best you can do at the head coaching position. Tracking what happens with the Canucks should have some entertainment value and for Penguins fans it will come with a lot less stress.
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The Penguins have their last road game of their recent stretch of games today against the Washington Capitals. They’ll be shorthanded as Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust remain out. The new look lines are as follows:
Penguins' lines/pairings in practice same as yesterday w/ Zucker again absent
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) December 9, 2021
Rodrigues – Crosby – Kapanen
O'Connor – Carter – Heinen
ZAR – Blueger – McGinn
Simon – Boyle – Lafferty
Malkin rotating on 4th line
Dumoulin – Letang
Pettersson – Marino
Matheson – Ruhwedel/Friedman
Jason Zucker has been out the past two practices with maintenance days. I assume he would slide into the spot occupied by Drew O’Connor if these are in fact maintenance days and not an injury. As I said yesterday I like the idea of getting Kapanen time with Crosby. Rodrigues has earned his promotion. Danton Heinen is a player to track because I see him as a potential top six player when everybody is healthy. Kind of how players like Carl Hagelin, Max Talbot, Ruslan Fedotenko and others have been top six players in the past. A player who can look the part so the talent can be spread more evenly among the other lines.
If Zucker can’t go I think I’d rather see Simon bump up to Crosby’s line (I know I know) and let Rodrigues play with Heinen and Carter. The bottom two lines aren’t going to be much for offensive creation and Simon in a bottom six role with players not offensively minded is a complete waste. Some would be fine leaving Drew O’Connor there and I suppose you could, but the things Simon is good at could complement both Crosby and Kapanen who are way better at actually scoring goals.
The Capitals look like the following.
Capitals lines at AM skate ahead of PIT:
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) December 10, 2021
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Hagelin-Eller-Sheary
Sprong-McMichael-Oshie
Malenstyn-Protas-Leason
Fehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
Irwin-Schultz
*Dowd, TvR, Hathaway (Covid protocols)
We have a handful of former Penguins in the middle six with Sheary, Hagelin, and Sprong all looking to be active. You also have Justin Schultz playing in a third pairing role.
Thanks for reading!