Jim Rutherford knows there likely will be a lot of prominent goalies changing teams before next season.
Some will change teams via free agency. Others will be traded by their current club.
But none, Rutherford figures, will be quite like the ones the Penguins can make available.
"There are a lot of goalies," he said Tuesday. "But there aren't any who are in their mid-20s and coming into their prime. That's the big difference with our goalies."
The Penguins have Matt Murray, who is 26 and has a pair of Stanley Cup rings, and Tristan Jarry, who is 25.
Both are restricted free agents and, while Rutherford never has publicly said that Murray is the one he is shopping, Jarry appears to have supplanted him as the franchise's go-to goalie, with Casey DeSmith poised to become the backup.
Rutherford said previously that the return in any trade for a goalie might well involve draft picks and/or prospects, as opposed to a player who would immediately move onto the major-league roster, at least in part because of the Penguins' limited salary-cap space.
Even so, he made it clear Tuesday that he does not feel compelled to make a move before the NHL's virtual draft, which is scheduled for Oct. 5-6.
"We'll see how the market plays out," he said.
Because neither Jarry nor Murray has a contract, the Penguins can retain their rights by extending a qualifying offer, for which the deadline is Oct. 7 at 5 p.m.
Rutherford said he plans to submit qualifying offers to both, as well as the three restricted free-agent forwards -- Dominik Simon, Sam Lafferty and Anthony Angello -- on the major-league roster.
Doing so will secure arbitration rights for Lafferty and Angello, because they signed their entry-level contracts after age 20.
Rutherford confirmed that he is able to offer a two-way contract, which pays a reduced salary when the player is in the minor leagues, to Lafferty and Angello, but declined to say whether he actually plans to do so.
Neither would have to go through waivers to be sent to the Penguins' American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre.
The Penguins have approximately $7 million of salary-cap space available, with 11 forwards, seven defensemen and DeSmith on the major-league roster at the moment.
