Ass-et Management and Jim Rutherford




Pittsburgh Penguins' General Manager Jim Rutherford has won three Stanley Cups in his career as a GM, two of them coming as Penguins' GM, and no one can ever take that away from him. That said we live in a world where it's about "What have you done for me lately?" and lately, Rutherford has failed the Penguins as GM. Not to be hyperbolic, but if you graded every move he's made after the back-to-back Stanley Cups, Rutherford would be sent to summer school. 

The Penguins had a championship team built on speed, skill, and were very savvy when it came to trades and cap value. Then, in 2018, for some reason this all suddenly changed. Why? I don't know exactly. They had a the golden ticket to the chocolate factory and threw it in the trash. Instead of speed and skill, they focused on getting tougher. Trading Oskar Sundqvist and a first round pick for 4th-line enforcer Ryan Reaves.  A year later they signed Jack Johnson, who is a career minus player, and over the age of 30, who was also previously benched in the playoffs for performance, to a 5-year deal. They talked about his "grit" and "toughness". Two bad deals that hurt they Penguins. 


I'd be disingenuous if I said Rutherford hasn't done any good since the Cup wins. I would absolutely mark the trade that acquired Jason Zucker a "win". The problem is, for every Zucker trade, there's two bad ones. The Penguins got rid of Ian Cole, who is objectively a solid second-pairing defensmen, and their top goalie prospect, to get Derrick Brassard, who was flipped less than a year later for Jared McCann and Nick Bjugstad, two-average third-line forwards. 

Here's a list of assets that Rutherford has traded since the summer of 2017:

Olli Maatta
Ian Cole
Dominik Kahun
2018 first-round pick
2021 first-round pick
2020 first--round pick
Oskar Sundqvist
Their top-center prospect 
Their top-goalie prospect
2021 3rd-round pick
top-defensive prospect 
Phil Kessel
2019 3rd pick


Here's what they have to show for all of that: 

Kasperi Kapenen
Nick Bjugstad
Jared McCann
Pierre-Oliver Joseph 
Jason Zucker


While Zucker is a big-win, the rest of this shows a like of care or proper value placed on the team's assets. Rutherford has burned through them all with very little to show. Often downgrading in major positions on the team. Especially on defense. For all of their faults, Olli Maatta and Ian Cole are drastically better than Jack Johnson in every aspect of the sport. Oskar Sundqvist is cheaper and better than Nick Bjugstad. Now the Penguins have zero first-round picks in 2020 and 2021, and with one of their goalies leaving town, have no future replacement in sight. The cupboard outside of Samuel Poulin and Nathan Legare the cupboard is bare. That would be fine had the Penguins actually acquired something of value outside of Zucker, but they didn't. The team and the franchise have regressed.

With the Kapanen trade, while Kapenen might turn out to be a decent top-9 forward on the Pens, it's still bad asset management. Especially when you consider that the Pens had a better-cheaper winger on the team in Dominik Kahun, was traded for Conor Sheary and Evan Rodrigues. And, according to the Athletic, that trade angered some of the players, as it should have. Kahun is a legit top-six winger, and is a better overall player than Kapanen. So now, you got rid of a better-cheaper winger, as well as the 15th overall pick in the draft, as well as your top-center prospect, for a more expensive winger who isn't as good. Yikes. 

For those of you thinking that I'm overreacting, consider that Rutherford also found early success as GM in Carolina. In 2006, his team won a Stanley Cup and he was named GM of the year. While he pressed all the right buttons in 2005 and 2006, after that he seemed to only do wrong. The team got worse and worse, and so did the transactions made by Rutherford. Sound familiar? 

Perhaps I'll bite my tongue and Rutherford will correct course this off-season. He's going to trade a goalie, maybe he'll move Jack Johnson, maybe he'll upgrade the defense? If so I'll be the first to eat crow and give him credit, as I've done in the past. Until then the outlook for this franchise looks bleak. I knew one day that the Crosby/Malkin era would come to end, I didn't count on the team's general manager accelerating it. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Depression. Hurting Others That You Care About

Why did I say that? What was I thinking? Have you ever said something to someone that you didn't mean? If you're a human being you've probably asked yourself these questions before. If you suffer from depression you might ask yourself these questions every single day. I know I do. Regrets are something must humans have, but when you suffer from depression, they are quantified and can eat you alive. Especially if you burn a bridge with someone that you once or still care about. That happened to me recently and this probably won't be the last time. I recently wrote about what it's like to date someone with a mental illness. I myself was seeing someone recently that inspired said blog post. I consider myself a very loyal, very guarded person, traits that are inspired by my depression. I've been hurt a lot, so those that have stayed loyal to me, I consider people that I would do anything for until the end of my life. However, when someone breaches that loyalty, m
Read more

Depression and Dating

I suffer from depression. For those that have been following me or know me personally, this isn't breaking news. No, I'm not in a funk and no I'm not lazy or looking for pity. I didn't ask for this, I was born with a chemical imbalance in my brain that causes me to be sad, scared, and angry for no reason. It also causes me to make compulsive decisions, be overly-affectionate, and sometimes angry to the point that I scare people. It fucking sucks.  Despite the fact that I suffer from not one, but two mental illnesses, anxiety being the other, I can sometimes manage to get girlfriends or even get laid. Sometimes I even manage to date really amazing and beautiful women that makes me question life and how it works altogether. When it comes to dating someone with depression, or high-anxiety disorder, or even bipolar disorder, there are some things you need to realize.  The first thing is, they can't help the way they are. I'm not saying that you should give them
Read more

You saved me

As I begin to write this blog, I am quite sure that some people will say that another person should not be a reason for you changing for the good. I am sure that people will say that you should not need a reason for being a better person. I agree with that premise but that doesn't make it untrue. My son, Jameson Thomas Nolan, born April 23rd, 2018, not only changed my life, but he changed my entire outlook on life. He saved me. Growing up, I never knew my father. Let's take that a step further, not only did I not know my father, I never saw a picture of him nor was I even given a name. I was told different stories about what happened for me to be born and why he wasn't around. Some of those stories were not happy ones. Growing up, I became jaded and resentful for not having a father, and used it as a crutch to fuel my bad behavior and depression. So many nights I blamed god and asked him why I didn't have a father As a child I looked to my pap to be my father figu
Read more