Reality is starting to set in for Jim Rutherford and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The draft is over and there was nothing done to improve the current roster. They drafted some power forwards who have good offensive numbers and limited skating ability. If everything pans out on those picks they might be able to help in about three years. Again, doing nothing for the present roster.
Things didn’t get any better when the new salary cap number came in at 81.5M instead of the widely reported 83M from earlier in the year. This gives the Penguins even less wiggle room than they thought. They have a bunch of mid-tier contracts not living up to their value and not a lot of great trading options at the moment. There are not a lot of options on the table. After spending weeks talking about blowing up the team and culture the GM is finally realizing the corner he has pinned himself into. He is backtracking off some of the public episodes he created earlier in the offseason
Don’t fall for his act. He ran his mouth and then couldn’t back it up. He's directionless and impulsive. There is no plan.
You don’t need to make a public spectacle and rile everyone up to accomplish that. He bumbled his way through this offseason creating a bigger spectacle with how he handled the situation. He was given multiple chances to clarify and chose to leave things ambiguous. Instead of telling other general managers on the down low he left two of his best players out in the wind. People talk about “class” and “leadership” non-stop for the players. Where was it for the general manager? Where is the culture of accountability for those at the top? Why is leadership only a player “problem” at the moment?
Maybe the problem is the new faces you brought in. If this wasn’t an issue when they were winning Stanley Cups then why would the issue be with the same players (13 of them) who were on those teams? Personally, I don’t think there is a culture problem on the team. There is a hockey talent problem on the roster. The team isn’t as good and as a result isn’t as likely to win as many games as they did. Losing breeds discontent. Signing and trading for bad players is the only problem here. Everything else is just window dressing. Notice it is always the losing teams banging the drum about culture. It is easier to tell the fans of the team that bad attitudes are the reason for losing, not the bad job the GM did with the roster.
Blah blah blah culture. The only thing he has done is trade away Olli Maatta. Are we really supposed to believe that Olli Maatta was a culture related problem on the team? That’s the only roster change he’s made. Unless you count Matt Cullen not being re-signed as the other culture issue. This begs the question if Cullen is as bad in the room as he was on the ice why did they bring him back in the first place? Of course Matt Cullen isn't a locker room issue, neither was Maatta. So what was done to change the culture "a little bit"? Meaningless platitudes are meaningless platitudes.
As of right now the Penguins don’t have a lot of cap space. They aren’t likely to be active in free agency. They don’t seem open to the idea trading the players who provide them minimal value. Nothing they did at the draft will do anything for 2019-20. The comments made since the season ended by the general manager have done nothing to help with the accountability and culture he is pushing. There has been no direction and now the team is in a corner. A destination the team has been headed towards since June of 2017. Take a look around the Metropolitan Division. Is the status quo going to cut it?
Thanks for reading!
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