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Pittsburgh Penguins: Will the Jim Rutherford haters please stand up?

By Nicholas Treu |

As you probably already know, the Pittsburgh Penguins pulled off that much talked about trade to land an elite top six winger in Phil Kessel yesterday. The full details are below:

Sure, the Penguins had to give up a top forward prospect in Kasperi Kapanen and a first round pick. Sure, they had to give up the organization’s fourth ranked prospect Scott Harrington, a former second round draft choice. But it was absolutely worth it, given that the Penguins didn’t give up their top three defensive prospects in Olli Maatta, Derrick Pouliot and Brian Dumoulin. In fact, as Dejan Kovacevic reported on DKonPittsburghSports.com, Maatta and Pouliot were never on the table in the Kessel deal.

This is a breath of fresh air for the Pittsburgh Penguins faithful because he understands how important Maatta and Pouliot are to the future of this franchise.

In the draft this past weekend, the Pens used their only four draft picks on forwards in an attempt to restock their system, and getting Tyler Biggs from the Maple Leafs made trading Kapanen a little easier to swallow.

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Rutherford even managed to ship Nick Spaling and his $2.2 million cap hit to Toronto. That savings makes this trade even more attractive for this upcoming season as the Pittsburgh Penguins were able to create more cap relief by including him. The Penguins also got their second round pick back that was given to Toronto in the Daniel Winnik deal at the trade deadline last season.

Well, if you’re a Pens fan, there is no reason to not love this deal. Kessel is going to count $6.8 million against the cap after the Leaf’s agreed to retain $1.2 million of Kessel’s cap over the remainder of his contract.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are getting a 27 year old superstar winger who, in the past five seasons, has accumulated point totals of 64 (32 goals), 82 (37 goals), 52  (20 goals), 80 (37 goals) and 61 (25 goals). The season in which he only accumulated 52 points was the lockout year, which he posted a 1.08 points-per-game.

That is 151 goals in the last 5 seasons, which is tied for fourth most in the NHL with Rick Nash. And, that point production came while playing primarily with Tyler Bozak as his center, who obviously isn’t even in the same league as Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin.

The only wingers that have scored more than Kessel since 2009-2010 are Alex Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos and Corey Perry. They carry cap hits of $9,538,462, $7.5 million and $8.625 million respectively. Nash is tied with Kessel for fourth most goals in the last five seasons and he has a $7.8 million dollar cap hit. (All cap numbers courtesy of http://www.spotrac.com/nhl/)

After this almost unbelievable trade, my question is, where are the Jim Rutherford haters now?

You know, the same ones that were calling for breaking up the core of this team after almost missing the playoffs last season even with significant injuries to the blue line.

The same ones that were saying Rutherford created a team last season that was one of the softest teams in franchise history.

The same ones that were calling for his job after an egregious trade of Simon Despres for Ben Lovejoy, a move that he has even acknowledged that he would not make today.

Because all Jim Rutherford has done since taking over for Ray Shero is make the Pittsburgh Penguins better. Stealing Ian Cole away from the Blues, being bold in trading James Neal for a net front presence in Patric Hornqvist, trading for a skilled, proven all around winger in David Perron, and plundering Phil Kessel away from Toronto without giving up Maatta or Pouliot. Rutherford has even gone outside the box and signed a KHL all-star this past season in Sergei Plotnikov to an entry level contract of $925,000.

Seriously, what more could one reasonably expect Rutherford to do during his tenure so far? He has transformed this roster and done just about everything that he has said he would do.

Improve the top six forwards?

Well he has certainly done that in assembling Malkin, Crosby, Kessel, Perron, Hornqvist and recently signed Plotnikov. This might be the best group of wingers that the Penguins have boasted on paper in the Crosby and Malkin era.

Get younger throughout the lineup?

Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Hornqvist, Perron, Plotnikov, Sutter, Bennett, Maatta, Pouliot, Cole and Letang are all 28 years old or younger. Oskar Sundqvist, who will be given a great shot at making the roster, is 21 years old. Chris Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis and Rob Scuderi will be 36 by October, but at least Kunitz and Dupuis’ roles will be that of third line wingers and not in the top six right away. I just don’t see Scuderi as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins on opening night, I just don’t. The only other players on this roster that are 30 or over are Marc-Andre Fleury and Ben Lovejoy.

Getting skilled, grittier players?

I’d say the scouting reports for Patric Hornqvist, David Perron and Sergei Plotnikov support that claim. Even Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis can play a physical style of hockey. These guys aren’t the biggest, baddest, most mean players in the NHL, but they aren’t afraid to throw their bodies around and have skill that that compliments their physical edge. In case you haven’t noticed, that’s exactly the kind of hockey that wins in the playoffs.

The offseason is far from over. The Pittsburgh Penguins still have some holes to fill on their roster and have roughly between $5 and $6 million in cap space left to do it. But, given Rutherford’s full body of work and the patience that he has shown in order to get what he wants, he has my full vote of confidence and trust.

And he should have yours too.

Next: Kessel Creating a Buzz in Pittsburgh that Rivals 2008

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