Jim Rutherford gathered a small group of Penguins officials and scouts in a PPG Paints Arena "war room" for Round 1 of the NH Draft Tuesday evening.
He probably shouldn't have bothered.
After all, the Penguins didn't make a pick.
They didn't make a trade.
They didn't even make it onto TV, since they weren't involved in any sort of transaction.
However, that should change early Wednesday afternoon when, barring a trade, the Penguins will use the first of their four selections. It will come in the middle of the third round and is No. 77 overall.
They also will have selections in fourth (108), fifth (139) and sixth (170) rounds.
The Penguins surrendered their first-round choice in this draft, which would have been No. 15 overall, to Toronto to complete the Kasperi Kapanen trade.
Their second-rounder went to Vegas in 2017 to ensure that the Golden Knights would select Marc-Andre Fleury in the expansion draft, and ultimately ended up with Chicago.
While the Penguins were understandably interested in getting an earlier pick or two in this draft, Rutherford had made it clear that he would not part with the most valuable asset he is offering around the league, goalie Matt Murray, simply to make that happen.
Murray is one of many moving parts in a league-wide game of goaltending musical chairs; quite a few teams are looking for a new one and there's no shortage of goalies who are, or will be, on the market.
San Jose filled its opening when it acquired Devan Dubnyk from Minnesota, but the Wild, Edmonton, Buffalo, Ottawa, Chicago and Vancouver are among the teams that either are, or likely will be, shopping for a goalie.
Minnesota looks to be a viable destination for Murray, given that former Penguins player and assistant GM Bill Guerin is GM there and that he and Rutherford have struck deals in the past.
In addition to Murray, veterans who could be brought in to fill goaltending voids include Fleury, Braden Holtby, Corey Crawford, Jacob Markstrom and Henrik Lundqvist, although the latter seems like the frontrunner to replace Holtby in Washington.