Pittsburgh Penguins Around the Web: Pens Must Reads – 8/11/15
By Mike Necciai
In August, the Pittsburgh Penguins news would normally slow down to a mere crawl. Actually, NHL news in general would normally all but disappear. However, Jim Rutherford and Staff continues to surprise us with offseason shuffling, re-tooling, and rebuilding.
More from Penguins News
- Welcome To The Burgh: Lars Eller
- Penguins Waddle Toward The Season
- Farewell Carl Hagelin
- Penguins Line-up Breakdown vs Stanley Cup Champs Vegas
- Ryan Graves Solid Signing For The Pittsburgh Penguins
As I like to do periodically, I wanted to bring a few articles from around the web regarding your Pittsburgh Penguins. And, while the first on isn’t directly related to only the Pens, it’s interesting to see that Jim Rutherford is still considered to be on this list.
10 General Managers on the Hot Seat in 2015-16 – Lyle Richardson, BleacherReport.Com
Rutherford, for all intents and purposes, has had the most successful offseason we’ve seen in Pittsburgh over the last decade. He turned Kasperi Kapanen, Nick Spaling, Brandon Sutter, and a few draft picks into Phil Kessel, Eric Fehr, Nick Bonino, Matt Cullen, and other draft picks in return (some of which were upgrades over what he gave away). Impressive to say the least.
But, what if the Pittsburgh Penguins are once again eliminated in the first round? What if they don’t even make the playoffs? It isn’t likely, but you have to imagine that Rutherford’s job may be in jeopardy if it does.
Penguins Make an Inexpensive Mistake in Signing Cullen – Michael Pityk, TheHockeyWriters.Com
I covered what Matt Cullen means to this organization and their youth a just after the signing occurred, but Michael goes a different route in this piece regarding the free agent acquisition. While I don’t see the comparison with Chris Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis, and Rob Scuderi due to obvious cost differences, there is the element of Jim Rutherford stressing youth this summer but signing a 38-year old center.
However, when looking at the young prospects in the system, there isn’t much to be all that excited about. So, if none of them are good enough to beat out Cullen for the job, why wouldn’t you want him? This signing has Pens’ fans and writers split almost down the middle on opinion. It’ll be a fun situation to watch and see how it plays out.
Off-season Moves May Boost Penguins – Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press
It’s always interesting to see someone’s perspective from outside the Pens’ normal coverage outlets. Helene discusses Jim Rutherford’s offseason moves and rates their “Making the playoffs threat level” at a “High”.
Cullen Chasing Another Cup Title with Penguins – NHL.Com
Matt Cullen won a Stanley Cup Championship in 2006 with Jim Rutherford’s Carolina Hurricanes, and he’s hungry for another opportunity. Cullen strikes me as one of the good guys, and reminds me a lot of Pascal Dupuis in the ways he discusses the game.
It isn’t often I’ll give someone credit for intangibles, but similar to Dupuis, Cullen is a solid locker room guy. When you have multiple players like Cullen and Dupuis on your roster it’s tough to not be motivated for them. Hopefully, since this is one of their few remaining shots at winning a Cup, the rest of the team can match that intensity en route to the Cup finals.
As always, thanks for reading. August may be the dog days of summer for hockey fans, but we’re always talking shop at PensLabyrinth.Com. Keep it here and follow me on Twitter at @Michael29Angelo to keep the conversation going.
Next: Offseason Rants: Analytics and Their Place in Hockey