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Jim Rutherford

Metropolitan Notes: Johnson, Myers, Rangers

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While defensemen have been receiving big deals in the last week or two, one deal that caught many by surprise was the five-year, $16.25MM deal that Jack Johnson signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins signed on July 1. While Johnson was a highly-touted prospect at one time and developed into a solid NHL veteran, the five-year term seemed like a lot considering that the 31-year-old had lost his job at the end of the season with the Columbus Blue Jackets and instead took up a role as a healthy scratch for the remainder of the season and the playoffs. Johnson finished the year posting

Regardless, Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford had coaches’ Mike Sullivan and Sergei Gonchar look into the three games leading up to Johnson’s benching and they walked away with a positive impression and the team signed the veteran.

The Athletic’s Jesse Marshall (subscription required) took a look at the three games before Johnson was benched and analyzes and breaks down the veteran’s play, citing that his performance was solid, but underwhelming and while the defenseman did have some bad luck at times, what stood out the most was his lack of involvement in the team’s offense as he seems to only have been focusing on his defensive game, which might be exactly what Rutherford and the Penguins want out of Johnson.

  • Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that the Philadelphia Flyers’ signing of Christian Folin almost guarantees that defensive prospect Philippe Myers will begin the season with the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The 21-year-old undrafted free agent had a solid rookie season with the Phantoms last season and was expected to get a “long look” in Flyers training camp in September. However, with six quality NHL established defenseman already on the roster (not counting the injured Samuel Morin), Myers would have to beat one of them out to make the team. General manager Ron Hextall wouldn’t allow Myers to make the team as the team’s seventh defenseman when he could return to Lehigh Valley and get valuable playing experience. So, while many were upset that the team went out and signed Folin, it’s likely that Folin will man that extra defenseman role instead.
  • The New York Rangers have been talked about as a potential third-team in any deal involving Erik Karlsson. The team has $23.7MM in cap room to work with and with the team in a quick rebuild, this would be the perfect time to add more picks or prospects to that effort. While the team might be open to acquiring Ryan Callahan from Tampa Bay, The Athletic’s Rick Carpiniello (subscription required) writes that the team will not take on the contract of veteran Bobby Ryan, who still has four years at $7.25MM remaining on his deal. He writes that the Rangers don’t believe they will still be rebuilding in three or four years and being burdened by that deal down the road wouldn’t make any sense.

Pittsburgh Re-Signs Riley Sheahan To A One-Year Contract

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5:24 PM: The Penguins have indeed finalized a deal with Sheahan, announcing that he has signed a one-year, $2.1MM contract.  It checks in at a slightly higher amount than his $2.075MM qualifying offer but had he been qualified and gone to an arbitration hearing, it likely would have cost more for Pittsburgh to keep him around.

2:04 PM: Though he wasn’t qualified earlier this week, Riley Sheahan is likely headed back to the Pittsburgh Penguins anyway. GM Jim Rutherford took questions after his trade of Conor Sheary earlier today, and indicated that the team was getting closer to a deal with Sheahan and would have re-signed the 26-year old center even without the added cap space. The team also admitted that their focus is on adding another defenseman before the season begins—something they have apparently done already with Jack Johnson.

The Penguins didn’t give Sheahan a qualifying offer because it would have cost them more than $2MM, and he would have gained arbitration rights. Now, though Sheahan could technically become an unrestricted free agent and sign with whoever he wants on July 1st, the team seems confident they can get a deal done at a lower cap hit. That’s important to Pittsburgh, who are pinching pennies to get everyone in under the $79.5MM ceiling.

Sheahan can be a useful player for the team, able to line up at center or wing and contribute offensively in a secondary role. Coming off his incredibly unlucky 2016-17 campaign—Sheahan took 106 shots before getting his first goal of the season in the final game, ending with just two—he bounced back to register 32 points despite being used almost exclusively in a defensive role. Sheahan received the fewest offensive zone starts of any center on the team, and was asked to kill more time shorthanded than anyone other player on a per-game basis.

Even with increased roles coming for players like Daniel Sprong and Dominik Simon, Sheahan has clear value to the Penguins. He’ll be back in the fold in some capacity, though it’s not clear where a contract would land with the former Red Wing. With the relatively thin center market you’d think that he could draw some interest from around the league, but perhaps the stability that a Cup contender like Pittsburgh brings is enough to convince him to not even test the open waters.

Pittsburgh Trades Conor Sheary, Matt Hunwick To Buffalo Sabres

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The Pittsburgh Penguins made it clear after re-signing Bryan Rust that there may be cap casualties this summer, and we now may have an idea of who GM Jim Rutherford was talking about. Conor Sheary and Matt Hunwick are headed to Buffalo in exchange for a conditional 2019 fourth-round pick. The pick would move to a third-round selection if Sheary scores 20 goals or 40 points, or if Hunwick is traded before the 2019 draft. With no salary retained, this move clears $5.25MM for the Penguins, giving them plenty of room to add through free agency if they so choose.

Buffalo GM Jason Botterill released this statement on the acquisitions:

Conor has proven himself to be a reliable forward with an ability to come through in big games, whose playoff experience speaks for itself. Conor and Matt will bring a winning pedigree to our team, and we expect them both to complement our group very well.

Sheary is the prize of the trade for the Sabres—if you couldn’t tell from the above statement—and will likely be asked to take up residence on the left side of one of the top two lines in Buffalo. He has experience playing with a superstar center before, spending plenty of time on Sidney Crosby’s wing in Pittsburgh. If he can recreate some of that chemistry with Jack Eichel, the Sabres may have finally found a fit for their franchise center.

The 25-year old Sheary went undrafted as a junior player and needed to prove himself at the NCAA level before being offered a professional contract. Even then it took several years of development to get to the NHL, a path that Botterill will be quite familiar with given he was an assistant GM of the Penguins and ran their minor league system at the time. If there is anyone around the league that knows more than Rutherford about Sheary, it’s Botterill.

That said, Sheary did have just 30 points last season and has proven to be an extremely streaky scoring threat. There are times where all his hard work and speed result in very little, as we saw in the playoffs when he was held to just two assists through 12 games. Buffalo will hope a return to playing with skilled forwards will jump start that offensive touch, and get him back to the 23-goal man he was in 2016-17.

Hunwick had already worn out his welcome in Pittsburgh, just a single year into the three-year $6.75MM deal he signed last summer. There was never any bad blood between the veteran defenseman and the coaching staff or organization, but he couldn’t find a fit in the lineup and ended up playing in just 42 games. Getting rid of his contract was key this offseason, now that Jamie Oleksiak has taken his role at the bottom of the defensive corps and the team could be interested in bringing in players like Jack Johnson.

Should Johnson still be a target for the Penguins, they certainly have enough space now to fit him in. With the reputation Rutherford has for trading though, it seems just as likely that Pittsburgh will be involved in talks for players like Jeff Skinner, Max Pacioretty or Artemi Panarin, all three of whom are heading into the final year of their current contracts. Whether the price tag on any of them would interest the Penguins isn’t clear, but they now have the cap room—over $10MM in fact—to make a much bigger splash.

For Buffalo, adding two roster players for a conditional mid-round draft pick is nothing short of brilliance by Botterill. The Sabres aren’t in salary cap trouble and can easily afford to take a swing on both. Sheary provides a high reward player who could blossom in Buffalo, while Hunwick represents an upgrade on some of the defensemen the team iced last season. Even though the 33-year old didn’t fit into the Pittsburgh system, doesn’t mean he can’t be a useful sixth or seventh defenseman for the Sabres going forward.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet first tweeted that there were “rumblings” of a trade between the Penguins and Buffalo Sabres surrounding Conor Sheary. Darren Dreger of TSN reports gave us the Hunwick addition and the conditions of the trade.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Jack Johnson In Talks With Pittsburgh Penguins

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The Pittsburgh Penguins are always one of the teams to watch in trade season and free agency, at least with Jim Rutherford in the GM chair. The veteran executive is no stranger to salary cap gymnastics and horse trading, and usually finds unexpected ways to improve his roster. One of those ways may now come in the form of Jack Johnson, who according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has had very positive talks with the Penguins as we get closer to free agency opening on July 1st. Johnson is a good friend of Sidney Crosby and would give Pittsburgh another veteran option on the blueline to help on another Stanley Cup run in 2018-19.

The cost of a Johnson contract isn’t clear. The Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman earned $5MM on the last season of his seven-year, $30.5MM contract in 2017-18, but lobbied for a trade in order to try and secure a better contract on the open market. The 31-year old was involved in a very public bankruptcy case in 2014, and simply wanted to ensure a healthy deal this summer knowing it may be his last multi-year deal in the NHL. He ended up staying with Columbus all season, but faced being a healthy scratch down the stretch—in part, somewhat ironically, because of the Blue Jackets’ acquisition of Penguins defenseman Ian Cole at the deadline—and didn’t suit up for a single playoff game.

Where his market currently sits is unclear, but the Penguins can’t be paying huge sums to a defenseman in their current cap situation. After re-signing Bryan Rust earlier today, Pittsburgh has around $5MM in cap space with Jamie Oleksiak and others still to sign. Though they can go up to 10% over that during the offseason, signing Johnson to a hefty multi-year deal would make it awful tricky going forward. Rutherford has made it clear that they will send out some salary at some point this season, but even trading Phil Kessel’s $6.8MM cap hit doesn’t create much room if a good chunk of it is taken up by a Johnson signing.

Pittsburgh Made Rust, Sheary, Simon Available In Max Domi Negotiations

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Josh Yohe of The Athletic has some of the best sources inside the Pittsburgh Penguins, and in a piece (subscription required) detailing the potential availability of Phil Kessel this summer—something Yohe confirms is possible, though takes the Arizona Coyotes out of the running for financial reasons—he reports some of the players made available in GM Jim Rutherford’s recent pursuit of Max Domi. The Penguins were willing to talk about Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary and Dominik Simon, though what the exact offer for Domi was is unclear. The Coyotes would eventually trade Domi to the Montreal Canadiens instead for Alex Galchenyuk.

Rutherford is known as an executive willing to trade, and there has been no denying that he’d like to improve his club. As soon as Domi was rumored to be available many reports linked him to the Penguins, but it was never clear what kind of value the team would put on him. Now it’s clear, as all three of the mentioned players are important pieces to the Pittsburgh attack.

Rust may be the most interesting name, after a 38-point season that saw him become one of the most versatile and effective forwards on the roster.  Contributing on the powerplay and penalty kill while putting up some of the team’s best possession numbers, Rust is a perfect fit for a club that wants to spread offense across three lines. He can play both wings and has bounced between several groups over the last two seasons. He also is 26 and a restricted free agent however, meaning he’s due for a raise and is closing in on UFA status. After earning an average of $640K in each of the last two seasons, he’ll cost the Penguins a lot more this time around. Any multi-year deal is buying out unrestricted free agent years, and should send his cap hit skyrocketing despite his pedestrian goal totals.

Sheary on the other hand is already signed for two more seasons at a $3MM cap hit, but could be replaceable for the team if they can find offense somewhere else. The 25-year old saw his ice time drop to under 14 minutes a night this season and without anything to offer on the penalty kill his role is limited to an offensive presence. That point production dropped significantly from the 2016-17 season, and while Sheary still scored 18 goals this year he recorded just 30 points.

Simon lands somewhere else on the value chart, as he’s both a restricted free agent this summer and hasn’t yet shown he can handle the NHL on a full-time basis. The 23-year old was good this year in his 33-game stint, scoring 12 points and recording solid possession numbers, but with just 38 NHL games under his belt since being drafted in 2015 it’s not clear yet what he can really become.

When presented with the choice of these players or Galchenyuk, it makes sense that Arizona would take Montreal’s offer. We don’t know though how the negotiations took place exactly, and instead can only take from this report that the Penguins would be willing to move each of the three for the right return. While that’s not very surprising given their GM’s propensity for trade, it gives us an idea of what to expect from Pittsburgh in the coming weeks.

Pittsburgh Re-Signs Tobias Lindberg

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Tuesday: The team has officially announced the signing, confirming that it is a two-way deal worth $650K at the NHL level.

Monday: It’s easy to forget that Derick Brassard was not the only player acquired by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the three-team blockbuster that brought him over from the Ottawa Senators through the Vegas Golden Knights. The Penguins also added minor league forward Tobias Lindberg as compensation for sending an extra draft pick to Vegas. However, Lindberg remained with the Knights’ AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, for the remainder of the season and has yet to really be associated with the Penguins organization.

That is, until now. TVA’s Renaud Lavoie reports that the Penguins have signed Lindberg to a one-year, two-way extension worth the league minimum  $650K at the NHL level. In terms of adding the affordable depth and upside that GM Jim Rutherford is looking for, this deal is right on track. Lindberg, 22, already has six NHL games and 164 AHL games under his belt in three pro seasons. A fourth-round pick of the Ottawa Senators in 2013 out of Djurgardens of the Swedish Hockey League, Lindberg has experience playing – and producing – at several different levels already.

His next challenge will be fighting for his place in the Penguins organizational pecking order when he joins the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins next season. It would be a stretch to assume that Linberg would earn a spot in Pittsburgh out of camp, especially with fellow youngsters like Daniel Sprong and Zach Aston-Reese having been promised increased roles next year, but Lindberg should be among the group of primary call-up candidates at the AHL level. Not only did Lindberg get a taste of the NHL with six games with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016-17, but he also has experience playing on both wings and playing both scoring and checking roles. That versatility is extremely valuable as a minor league depth option. Rutherford has been honest that some of the Penguins’ restricted free agents may not be re-signed this off-season, so Lindberg’s speedy extension would seem to indicate that the team envisions a role for him moving forward.

Rutherford Eyeing Trade Market To Improve Penguins

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Changes are coming in Pittsburgh this off-season, but GM Jim Rutherford is “not even really thinking about free agency right now”. Speaking with Josh Yohe of the Athletic, Rutherford admits that “we won’t really have the cap space to do anything anyway. We’re going to re-sign some of our restricted free agents. And at that point, we’re around the cap.” The Penguins need to re-sign RFA’s Bryan Rust, Riley Sheahan, Daniel Sprong, Jamie Oleksiak and more and even with the expected increase to the salary cap limit will only have $8-12MM maximum to work with. The team could make a couple additional minor moves here and there on the unrestricted free agent market, but Rutherford is correct that team is strapped for the cap space to make any significant signings this summer, at least as things stand now.

As a result, it is the trade market that Rutherford is more interested in. The team has already stated that they don’t plan to buy out any of their current players, but they could look to move them via trade. Atop that list are likely wingers Carl Hagelin and Conor Sheary and defenseman Matt Hunwick. In fact, the blue line appears to be the most likely area for a player to be traded away, as the team enters next season with six veterans under contract and Oleksiak and Frank Corrado as restricted free agents. Rutherford stated to Yohe that defenseman Brian Dumoulin is the most untouchable player on the back end due to his invaluable defensive play, and also expressed his fondness for Oleksiak and Olli Maatta as well. Rutherford said that the front office is optimistic that Kris Letang and Hunwick will perform better next year and were happy with the play of Justin Schultz and Chad Ruhwedel as they made up for Letang’s and Hunwick’s shortcomings respectively this season. However, Rutherford added that his comfort with this group doesn’t mean that won’t make a change.

The goal in making any deal is to improve the depth and youth of the Penguins’ forward corps. This explains why the team was connected to Max Domi recently, before he was traded to the Montreal Canadiens last week. The team is seeking versatility and upside up front and are willing to move substantial assets to get it, but Rutherford wasn’t willing to part with the Alex Galchenyuk-level ask from the Arizona Coyotes for Domi. Rutherford knows that even if he does nothing this summer, Pittsburgh will still be a contender, and as such he does not need to overpay in any trade. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are not going anywhere and Rutherford has already confirmed that he is not shopping Phil Kessel. It’s safe to assume that young winger Jake Guentzel and new acquisition Derick Brassard are also safe. That is already shaping up to be a solid group yet again and the internal addition of younger players should add energy and potential. However, Rutherford’s preference still is to add depth and even more youth if he can to combat the injuries and fatigue that hurt his aging roster last year. Those are the moves he is looking to make this summer and it seems inevitable that at least one such transaction will be made by the expert executive. They may not be three-peat champions, but the Penguins are going to re-stock and be dangerous again in 2018-19.

Pittsburgh Is Not Looking To Trade Phil Kessel

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Following the recent report from The Athletic’s Josh Yohe that Penguins star forward Phil Kessel was upset about his usage in the playoffs and that he and head coach Mike Sullivan were at odds that had led the team to look at moving Kessel, colleague Pierre Lebrun clarified the situation after speaking with Pittsburgh GM Jim Rutherford. LeBrun reports that Rutherford feels the rumors of dissension in the locker room have been “blown out of proportion”. If this sounds familiar, it is because Rutherford responded to Kessel rumors similarly last summer and, of course, he was not traded. It appears to again be a topic that is inflated by the media more than it is grounded in reality.

Rutherford tells Lebrun that both he and Sullivan understand that it is Kessel’s preference to play with Evgeni Malkin, but defends his coach, saying “there’s times where they play together, when they’re both really going, and there’s times when they don’t… (Sullivan) believes balance throughout the lineup is the best way to win, and we won two Cups that way”. He continues that “for someone to suggest it’s an issue within our team, that can’t be taken care of or resolved, I don’t believe that’s accurate… I don’t feel that we have to trade Phil Kessel.”

If there is no discourse, why would the Penguins trade Kessel? Yes, there are salary cap concerns, but some of those could be eliminated by the estimated significant cap increase, while others could be assisted by shipping out a less-crucial player like Carl Hagelin or Matt Hunwick. After all, Kessel’s 92 points this season did finish tied for seventh in the league in scoring – ahead of Sidney Crosby – and he was among the league’s best in goals, assists, and power play production. At a reduced cap hit courtesy of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Penguins would much rather keep Kessel and his enormous output rather than try to find a fair return for him. If not for the rumored rift between he and Sullivan, there is little reason they would rush to deal him away. It appears that we can close the book on this hypothetical, at least until next off-season.

Trade Speculation Surrounds Phil Kessel, Pittsburgh Penguins

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Every year when a team is eliminated early in the playoffs, speculation starts to pop up about any underperforming stars. Will they return next season? Is the time now to move on? What could they fetch in return? This time around, it’s a two-time Stanley Cup Champion coming off a 92-point season that is the target of much trade speculation. Recently, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Ron Cook penned a piece suggesting that a divide had been formed between Phil Kessel and Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan, one that “torpedoed” the team’s chances at a third consecutive Stanley Cup. Today, Tim Benz of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review pointed us in the direction of radio host Mark Madden of 105.9, who suggests that the Penguins are trying to trade Kessel and that the enigmatic winger is “okay with that.”

It’s not the first time Kessel has been involved in trade speculation in his career. The 30-year old winger was first shipped out of Boston after a breakout 36-goal, 60-point season for the Bruins in 2008-09, only to find himself traded once again by the Toronto Maple Leafs six years later. The situation in Toronto had deteriorated to a point where they needed a reset on the ice and in the dressing room, and Pittsburgh was happy to take him off their hands—Toronto even retained some of the salary on his expensive, long-term deal.

Kessel is coming off the best season of his career with 34 goals and 92 points, but was able to muster just one goal in the playoffs for the Penguins (though he added eight assists in 12 games). If GM Jim Rutherford were to trade him away, it would be a stark indictment of all the success this group has had the last few seasons. Kessel especially flourished this season, finishing three points ahead of Sidney Crosby and just six behind Evgeni Malkin for the team lead.

That big-money contract that Kessel signed in Toronto still has four years remaining on it, with the Penguins carrying just a $6.8MM cap hit after Toronto’s retained portion. He also holds a modified no-trade clause that would allow him to block trades to all but eight teams, though, if Madden is correct, perhaps he’d waive the clause to find his way out of town.

At this point in the season all the speculation regarding star players should be taken with a grain of salt. If, however, Kessel does enter the trade market there would be no shortage of teams interested. The Penguins do still have a cap crunch going forward, with several restricted free agents needing contracts with little cap room to spend. Trading Kessel would certainly open up some room, and he would likely generate a big return. Usually big trades like this don’t happen until the entry draft, meaning even after the upcoming Stanley Cup Finals we likely will have to wait a bit to see if there is anything to these trade rumors. If Pittsburgh really is considering it, Kessel could quickly become the offseason’s most intriguing story.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: Hunwick, Pitlick, Stars

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Matt Hunwick’s first season in Pittsburgh did not go according to plan. After signing a three-year, $6.75MM contract with the Penguins at the opening of free agency, the expectations were that Hunwick would be a capable everyday defenseman. Yet, by the trade deadline Hunwick had missed 18 games due to injury and a few more due to healthy scratches and had just five points on the year to show for the games he did play in. Less than a year in to a three-year pact, GM Jim Rutherford was searching for a way to move his contract. When he couldn’t, Hunwick ended up watching 26 of the Penguins final 29 regular season games and each game of the postseason from the press box. These disappointing results are not lost on Hunwick though; the veteran defenseman was honest in his self-criticism when speaking to the gathered media yesterday, reports The Athletic’s Seth Rorabaugh. Hunwick did attribute some of the blame for his poor play to injury and a Penguins system that was difficult to adjust to, but largely took responsibility for the campaign by admitting his lack of a mental edge. “I don’t think I played with enough confidence throughout the season…Maybe (confidence was) part of the reason (for struggling)”, Hunwick said, adding ““I’d hope to play a lot better (next season). I’d like to be more assertive and be more confident right out of the gate. Now knowing the system and the guys, I think that should happen.” Maybe that will happen for Hunwick, but that is assuming he remains in Pittsburgh to begin next season. Rutherford still faces the pressure of the salary cap crunch and an overpaid depth defenseman is an ideal target to move out, if possible. Hunwick has proven to be a capable player over his career and he very likely would improve in year two with the Penguins, but he may not be afforded the opportunity after a rough start this year.

  • On the other end of the spectrum is Dallas Stars forward Tyler Pitlick. In grading out the roster after a frustrating end to the season – a late-season collapse that cost the team a playoff spot – Sportsday’s Joshua Friemel calls Pitlick a highlight of an otherwise disappointing season. In fact, Friemel states that Pitlick may have even been a better off-season addition than big-name acquisitions Ben Bishop, Marc Methot, or Martin Hanzal. The Stars spent right up to the cap in 2017-18, but paid Pitlick only $1MM and got 80 games and 27 points back in return. Friemel points out that his 14 goals were good enough for sixth on the team and they were also more than Jason Spezza and Antoine Roussel combined, who together made $9.5MM. Pitlick also contributed on the penalty kill and was one of the Stars’ more physical and effective two-way players. Better yet, Pitlick still has two years remaining on his deal at that same bargain rate. The underutilized Edmonton Oilers prospect may have been little more than a waiver when he signed in Dallas and may have flown under the radar this season, but going forward his value will no longer go unnoticed.
  • Staying in Dallas, Stars owner Tom Gaglardi made the rare cross-organization reassignment today. The Kamloops Blazers, the WHL team that Gaglardi shares ownership in, today announced several front office changes, including the assignment of GM Stu MacGregor to the Stars organization, as Gaglardi also owns both Dallas and AHL Texas. The Athletic’s Sean Shapiro clarifies that MacGregor has been transferred to the Stars’ amateur scouting department, where his experience with junior hockey can be put toward a different purpose. With the Blazers finishing with the fifth-worst record in the league this season, changes were expected, but it’s a shrewd move by Gaglardi to replace his GM for one team without losing an asset by instead strengthening his other team.

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