Kovacevic: Rutherford smartly navigates minefield taken in Fort Myers, Fla. (Penguins)

Jim Rutherford. - GETTY

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Jim Rutherford's never wrong.

Well, he hasn't been anything but spectacularly correct in such a long time that, once adding a stroll down the Boulevard of the Allies into the equation, the man's more than earned the benefit of the doubt, right?

Acquiring nothing more than two elderly defensemen at the NHL's trade deadline, first Ron Hainsey, 36, then Mark Streit, 39?

Bravo!

Moving Eric Fehr after he made a very real contribution to that Cup?

You go, bro!

Keeping Marc-Andre Fleury even if it means losing him for squat this summer?

Hear, hear!

Heck, J.R. could trade Markus Naslund for a third-line enforcer, Jerome Bettis for a third-round pick, Jose Bautista for a third-string catcher, and he'd have achieved enough that, at the very least, the default reaction should be that whatever he did will reap rainbows, unicorns and four-leaf clovers.



It's my reaction, anyway. Because that's what winning does. That's what results do.

So I could, theoretically, apply the brakes on this column right here. Except for one thing:

"Oh, boy," Rutherford opened his session with reporters in Chicago early Wednesday evening. "A lot of these talks, you don't know when things are going to happen."

Yeah, that. There's some serious nuance involved.

No one likes nuance when it comes to trades, at least not in public and/or media debates. We've got winners and losers, thumbs up and thumbs down ... man, we give grades, for crying out loud, for trades that haven't had minutes to materialize.

That won't work this time. Because the winners in this scenario are the actual winners, the ones raising the Stanley Cup in June. And the most recent precedent on Rutherford in that process had him trading for Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, Carl Hagelin, Ian Cole, Ben Lovejoy, Nick Bonino and, by all that is holy, Trevor Daley for Rob Scuderi.

So that meant taking a hard look at this team at this time, which is precisely what it appears happened:

Defense was paramount.

I've been pounding this drum for weeks, even before Kris Letang, Olli Maatta, Justin Schultz and Daley had begun dropping, based on a belief that the forwards had enough depth. And that any cap room that could be created needed to fortify anyone else going down. And -- don't dare neglect this just because it's weeks away -- there's no way the Penguins' defense as previously constituted was going to get through the Blue Jackets and/or Capitals with six healthy regulars.

No bleeping way.

"That's what our big need was," Rutherford said, for the first time fully divulging that sentiment.

They could have gotten lucky, but championships aren't built on getting lucky and hoping for the best. They're built through real preparation.

That's what we have here. Even if all six regulars are fine for Game 1, and even if Mike Sullivan decides that they're still his top six, he's now got not one but two highly experienced, highly intelligent and still useful defensemen in practices and up in the press box ready to help. And if they get a chance to do more and seize it, hey, so be it.

That's the GM doing right by his coach and by his team.

That's the GM doing more than hoping.

The forwards are fine.

Once they're healthy, anyway. Conor Sheary will be back soon, and Bryan Rust ... we'll see. Health is an issue for all 16 playoff participants, and the Penguins aren't an exception. In the same breath, though, it's fair to assess that this team can perform offensively at pretty much the same pace while missing any one or two forwards save for Sidney Crosby and the beast-mode version of Evgeni Malkin.

Thank Jake Guentzel for that, more than anyone.

If we're really looking for a 'winner' at this deadline, it's that young man. He's stepped up not only in scoring but also toughness -- some of his best plays at Heinz Field came after that vicious head shot by the Flyers' Brandon Manning -- and there's no reason he should ever see Wilkes-Barre again. That's not to suggest he's a top-six lock for his career. That's got to be earned over time. But he's shown enough that he, maybe more than any individual in the organization, afforded Rutherford the luxury of focusing on defense, the real priority.

Look at it this way, projecting some playoff lines just for fun:

Sheary-Crosby-Hornqvist
Guentzel-Malkin-Rust
Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel
Kunitz-Cullen-Kuhnhackl

"I think a lot of organizations would like to be in the situation that Pittsburgh is in," he said. "We’re very fortunate that we have the world class players that we have. You just have to build around those guys. When you have those contracts they have, you’re always going to be up against the cap.”

Loading...
Loading...