The job isn't finished.
It never really is, for that matter.
Constructing an NHL roster is an ongoing, never-ending process.
But with the Penguins barely two months into their offseason, Jim Rutherford believes he's met his primary personnel objectives heading into the 2020-21 season, whenever it might begin.
He's traded a goalie, remade the No. 3 line and upgraded the third defense pairing. Which explains why Rutherford is confident that he's attained his bottom-line goal: Making the Penguins better than they were when Montreal humbled them in four games during the qualifying round for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
"We're stronger with our forwards," he said Tuesday. "We have more balance. We're stronger at each line, when you break down the lines all the way through, including our extra players, whoever that ends up being. We changed that third pairing. We wanted to get younger. We really like Mike Matheson. We know that there needs to be a couple of adjustments in his game. We like (Juuso) Riikola and (Chad) Ruhwedel. Riikola, when he first came here, he really did some good things, then kind of got shuffled out of the lineup. We'll see what we have there. With Chad ... when he's gone in the lineup, he's given us real steady play and a lot of good games. We have trust in him."
The No. 3 pairing against the Canadiens had Jack Johnson alongside Justin Schultz; Johnson's contract was bought out and he subsequently joined the Rangers as a free agent, while Schultz went to the Capitals as a free agent.
They are scheduled to be replaced by Matheson and Ruhwedel, the latter of whom never has appeared in more than 44 games in an NHL season. The onus will be on Ruhwedel, then, to prove that he can be an everyday player, although Rutherford doesn't appear to have any real concerns about that.
"The challenge is being able to do it game after game, without a lot of rest," Rutherford said. "That's the adjustment he's going to have to make. But it's not like he's just gone in for a couple of games, and come out. He has gone in and played long stretches of time and done very well with it."
He also volunteered that there could be other options to fill the vacancy created by Schultz's departure.
"Riikola could possibly go to his off-side, play on the right side," Rutherford said. "And we've got (Zach) Trotman there, also, who has given us good games in the past. Then (Cameron) Lee, who we signed as a free agent out of college. We like him. We like what he does. And (Pierre-Olivier) Joseph has taken big strides."
Lee and Joseph are left-handed and, while they might get consideration for a spot on the right side, Rutherford made it clear that Ruhwedel and Riikola "will get the first shot at that right side in the top six."
Patrick Marleau, a non-factor against Montreal as the left winger on the third line, was not re-signed and accepted a one-year contract to return to the Sharks Tuesday, and right winger Patric Hornqvist was traded to the Panthers for Matheson and blue-collar winger Colton Sceviour last month.
The Penguins replaced Marleau and Hornqvist via free agency, signing Mark Jankowski and Evan Rodrigues. Jankowski is expected to work between Jared McCann, who had been at center, and Rodrigues.
Rutherford has expressed interest in adding another right-handed defenseman, and has the salary-cap space to accommodate one if he's not particularly high-priced. For now, though, changing personnel appears to have become a back-burner issue.
"We'll still look at depth players, potentially, for Wilkes-Barre," he said. "We're always looking. We're always open to things. But the good thing now is, we have all of our business done that we wanted to do in the offseason. We have flexibility because we have about $2.5 million in cap space left. ... We can sit on that until well into the season, until we see what our needs are."