He is, Jim Rutherford said today, pretty content with what his roster looks like today, and doesn't see any area of the Penguins' depth chart that clearly needs an upgrade before training camp opens.
Good thing, too, because Rutherford confirmed that his immediate focus has to be on subtraction, not addition.
Reducing the team's payroll so that it can be in compliance with the NHL's salary cap ceiling, to be precise.
CapFriendly.com puts the Penguins' cap hit on a 23-man roster of signed players at $81,657,500, which is $157,500 above the ceiling of $81.5 million for the 2019-20 season.
Although NHL regulations allow teams to exceed the ceiling by as much as 10 percent during the off-season, that clearly is not a provision the Penguins are inclined to exploit any more than they might already have.
This is, traditionally, a slow time in the NHL, because many general managers and other decision-makers take some time off between free agency and the start of camp. That makes it difficult to say when Rutherford and his colleagues might start to receive expressions of interest in moves they are considering.
"You don't know," he said. "It's hard to predict."
The CapFriendly.com roster does not include defenseman Marcus Pettersson, who is the Penguins' lone restricted free agent. Pettersson is one of 24 players -- 13 forwards, eight defensemen and three goalies -- who appear on a roster on the team's website.
Pettersson's agent, Peter Wallen, and Rutherford agree that negotiations on a contract don't figure to proceed in a meaningful way until the Penguins open some cap space.
"(The negotiations) are where they're at until we know exactly how much cap space we have," Rutherford said.
There often is a connection between the salary a player receives and the number of years on his contract. Consequently, it's no surprise that Rutherford declined to say whether the Penguins would prefer to work out a longer- or shorter-term agreement with Pettersson.
"We're just waiting to see where we are, cap-wise, before making that decision," he said.
Rutherford was emphatic that the stall in contract talks is not a reflection of how the organization views Pettersson, who was acquired from Anaheim last December, and that resigning him is a priority once circumstances are conducive.
"Absolutely," Rutherford said. "He was very good for us."
