Pittsburgh Penguins: Top Ten Penguins To Hate In 2016

Jim Rutherford

The architect of this dumpster-fire of a team. He might be my personal favourite out of the ten.

Poor old Jimmy hires a nobody coach that ends up failing, trades one of the best finishers in the league (James Neal) for a last-overall pick that has struggled mightily in his second year with the team, and trades our only major draft picks and prospects for a largely ineffective David Perron and Phil Kessel.

He then trades a young, skilled defenseman for an older, less skilled defender (then admits he screwed that one up), and finally lets promising coach John Hynes go to the New Jersey Devils where he’s having greater success with less to work with.

To cap it off, this summer he produces a spectacular offseason failure with his “four legitimate scoring lines” plan and appears to have clashing opinions on line-up decisions with his chosen coach before finally letting him go.

The list goes on and on.

Except, wait. In the moment, I really liked pretty much every single thing that he’s done since he took over as general manager.

I’ve had recurring dreams over the last year and a half where I find out that he’s my grandpa, and let me tell you, I’m the proudest grandson the dream world has ever seen.

And that’s to say nothing of the fact that we have essentially the same hometown, and the only time I’ve ever touched the Stanley Cup was when he brought it back home after his win with the Hurricanes.

We have a special connection that I just don’t think I can betray, so even though I think he’s probably the best fit for the fan base as a whole, I’m not sure I could get behind it personally.

Next: Should We Turn On Phil The Thrill?