{"id":919393,"date":"2019-07-12T11:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T16:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/?p=919393"},"modified":"2019-07-12T11:17:57","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T16:17:57","slug":"team-in-the-wilderness-p1b1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/team-in-the-wilderness-p1b1\/","title":{"rendered":"A Team In The Wilderness: How Did The Penguins Get Here?"},"content":{"rendered":"
So, I wanted to write this for a while, but I also wanted to let the dust settle and collect my thoughts before I did. You know, take emotion and immediacy out of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now that we\u2019re nearing the midpoint of July I think we can do this.<\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t have a clue what Jim Rutherford is doing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I know, I\u2019m not the only one that has had that take or will have that take.<\/span><\/p>\n Jim Rutherford deserved and deserves a lot of credit for what he did between 2014-2017. His first full season may not have been tremendous but the groundwork was laid down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hornqvist was in, depth guys were signed to reasonable 1-2 year deals and you could see the mentality in the organization was changing. They were going to get away from the usual \u201ctrade off all of our assets for high-priced rentals\u201d mentality and start looking for cheaper, more affordable and often underrated talents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sure, Mike Johnston wasn\u2019t the best decision as a coaching hire, but to me, it confirmed a belief that I think GMJR had at the time: We\u2019re not teaching an old dog new tricks, bring in someone that will let the stars shine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Then summer of 2015 happened. Phil Kessel was in. Nick Bonino for Brandon Sutter was a tremendous move, Eric Fehr gets signed for three years at $2M which was completely worthwhile.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, in December, Johnston is fired and Sullivan is promoted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Shortly thereafter GMJR ships Rob Scuderi to Chicago for Trevor Daley, then Perron for Hagelin, then Justin Schultz is acquired and it\u2019s clear<\/a>: this team is going to be <\/span>fast.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Penguins are now faster, more talented and determined than most teams in the NHL. A mix of speed, motivated veterans, and hungry young players make this a perfect storm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 2017, he leaves well enough alone. You just won a Stanley Cup and outside of some hiccups against Washington and Tampa, you didn\u2019t look like you needed much luck. You dominated New York and barnstormed San Jose. Why try to fix what wasn\u2019t broken?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Then, summer of 2017, after another championship, something changes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Oskar Sunqvist goes for Ryan Reaves. Scott Wilson for Riley Sheahan. Jamie Oleksiak is brought in. Eventually, the Reaves trade is negated due to the acquisition of Derrick Brassard. There\u2019s also a true case to be made that this team just burned out. Ten rounds, two Stanley Cups, three full seasons and a roster that for the most part remained untouched.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But it was who they lost to, specifically, who was on the team they lost to – Tom Wilson.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m essentially building off of what Adam Gretz wrote<\/a> back in April following the Penguins sweep at the hands of the Islanders.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I also starting thinking about writing this post when Adam Wylde of Steve Dangle Podcast fame said, \u201cFor some reason, after winning a second Stanley Cup, Jim Rutherford decided he didn\u2019t like the way he won those Cups.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nailed it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m of a firm belief that Tom Wilson broke Jim Rutherford\u2019s brain. Because the past two offseasons have made little to no sense whatsoever.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Between his usual antics and the destruction of Zach Aston-Reese\u2019s jaw, Jim Rutherford decided that sending the Capitals home early in two out of the three meetings just wasn\u2019t enough. They needed to apparently send them home early and send them home hurt, playing right into the hands of what many people hoped the Penguins would do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sure enough, Jim did just that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jack Johnson – signed for five years<\/a>. Acquiring Gudbranson and his albatross of a contract<\/a>. Opting to give Brandon Tanev SIX YEARS<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Penguins back-to-back championships were built on speed, skill, depth and an ability to move the puck quickly and efficiently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It fundamentally altered the way the league operated. It\u2019s a copycat league, it always has been and when you become the first team in the parity-driven, salary cap era to win consecutive championships, you\u2019ve rewritten the blueprint to success.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Teams began focusing on getting younger, faster and more skilled.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Penguins went the opposite direction. Matt Cullen is brought back after a wholly underwhelming season in Minnesota. Jared McCann and Nick Bjugstad are nice additions<\/a>, sure, but when your blue line has active liabilities, it\u2019s nothing but a bandaid.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This summer has been no different.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We already covered Tanev getting six years, but there lies another problem. Why six years? Two-to-three would\u2019ve been fine<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen solid depth players like Johansson and Dzingel get similar AAV after more productive years get 1-3 years each.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The same goes for Phil Kessel for Alex Galychenyuk<\/a>. Sure, it could be a nice reclamation project<\/a>, but if he does well, he\u2019s a UFA next year and you either lose on him walking or you have to overpay yet another player. That\u2019s on top of McCann, Simon and Murray all being RFAs as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At the end of the day, a lot of the Penguins\u2019 wounds are self-inflicted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You didn\u2019t <\/span>have <\/span><\/i>to give Jack Johnson five years. I know that Gonchar and Martin have rehabbed their fair share of defenseman, but you don\u2019t give a rehab project half a decade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You sign depth players so you can recycle them, hence why Tanev didn\u2019t need six years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Trading Carl Hagelin because you felt the need to make a move just for the sake of making a move<\/a> proved to be borderline disastrous because Pearson didn\u2019t work out and turned into Gudbranson<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Much of this was unnecessary. Carl Hagelin was a UFA this summer. If it was time for him to go, let him walk. You have a couple of pieces on the farm that could step into a bottom six role.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They bid against themselves to sign Johnson and Tanev and effectively overpaid for both.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As I said on Dying Alive and this website multiple times, a Stanley Cup-winning GM gets a lot of rope. Rutherford effectively hung himself with it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re in the twilight years of the Crosby-Malkin-Letang era and for a few years, it appeared they were going to beat Father Time back as far as they could and maximize what they had.<\/span><\/p>\n As of the 2019 offseason, the window may not be shut completely, but it is very close to it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, I wanted to write this for a while, but I also wanted to let the dust settle and collect…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":896086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[703638882],"tags":[681659923,64979,2025351,108413],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n