Kovacevic: Rutherford read the room ... management now must do same taken at PPG Paints Arena (DK'S GRIND)

GENE J. PUSKAR / AP

Jim Rutherford interviewed in 2015 by Dejan Kovacevic of DK Pittsburgh Sports.

Jim Rutherford felt he'd earned an extension.

The Penguins' way-higher-ups felt they'd rather wait.

That's it. That's everything that went into Rutherford's sudden, stunning resignation Wednesday afternoon, and anyone attempting to attach more will be doing so irresponsibly, based on all I've been able to assemble since the announcement. The man's health is fine. His family's fine. There were no differences or dust-ups or disagreements over players/coaches with anyone above or below him.

Simply put, his contract was set to expire in June. He was in his seventh year as the general manager here, the first six of which saw six playoff appearances and, of course, two Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017. And in his view, he didn't deserve the lame-duck status he lugged through a pandemic into this season. Nor did he see himself as done at age 71. Nor did he see himself as deserving of being strung along to see how these next few months would unfold.

All he'd officially state is that he was leaving for "personal reasons," adding in a later interview with DK Pittsburgh Sports, "I'd like to just keep it on as positive a note as I can."

Can't say I blame him for any of this. Rutherford read the room, just as he had with so many of his trades that were based on an old-school sense for culture and chemistry.

Just as simply put, the front office -- Mario Lemieux, Ron Burkle and David Morehouse -- were amply aware that Rutherford's contract was set to expire in June. And they'd let that stand. Conspicuously so.

This past July, in a one-on-one interview with Morehouse, I'd asked if Rutherford essentially could stay on the job as long as he'd like. 

Morehouse's reply: "Our view is the same as it is throughout the NHL: Jim Rutherford’s a Hall of Fame general manager and, as a human being, as a caring individual, it’s even higher. That’s his status with everyone here, from the ownership to the coaches to the players. There’s no one with better character. There’s no one, as you know, who’s more of a straight talker and is going to tell you the truth. There’s no one’s smarter at making player moves and putting teams together and making us all look good."

Glowing as that came out, it wasn't a yes. It wasn't an affirmation in any way.

Can't say I blame them for any of this, either. Because they had their own room to read.

It takes a charmed touch to build a champion, and Rutherford showed that in excess all through the NHL's first back-to-back Cup winners of the salary cap era. Patric Hornqvist. Phil Kessel. Justin Schultz. Nick Bonino. Matt Cullen. Carl Hagelin. Trevor Daley. Ron Hainsey. Eric Fehr. Ian Cole. And I'm just scraping the ice surface here. There were so many more, almost all of them Midas-level.

What a time, you know?

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Sidney Crosby and Jim Rutherford in Nashville, Tenn., in 2017.

In the three-plus years since then, it's been more of a minefield, as it was for Rutherford after winning his Cup in Raleigh in 2006. That's how it tends to go. Climbing to the top is one thing. Staying up there, particularly with a core crossing into its 30s, is another. Evgeny Kuznetsov's breakaway that beat Matt Murray in 2018 set the stage for losing in four straight the following spring to the Islanders, then in four games of a best-of-five this past summer to the Canadiens, the 24th seed in a 24-team tournament. And the Midas thing went mostly south, too. Ryan Reaves. Derick Brassard. Jack Johnson. Patrick Marleau. Conor Sheary. Time will tell on Mike Matheson, Cody Ceci and others.

It's funny, I feel I could argue with equal fire that Rutherford had every right to expect to be respected with a real contract rather than to be treated like a rookie on a tryout ... and that Lemieux, Burkle and Morehouse had every right to wonder if they weren't being too passive in presiding over a visible decline. Particularly now that the current team, if one smartly discards the deceptive 4-2-1 record, is flailing in nearly every facet.

But hey, what's done is done, right?

It's wonderful that both Rutherford and Morehouse took the high road after the announcement, as I'd expect nothing less from both. And it's that much more wonderful that the Penguins and the Pittsburgh sports scene was blessed for the better part of a decade by Rutherford's vision, drive, commitment and an honest, human touch in all his dealings. On a personal and professional level, I'll miss him as much as I've appreciated him, and that's saying something.

The timing to Rutherford's resignation isn't wonderful, obviously, and that's my big minus here that I'd be remiss if not mentioning. No team in any sport covets the opportunity to do a GM search at any time, and one-eighth of the way into an abbreviated 56-game season, with so many defensemen hurt, with the virus at least cramping the team's ability to interview candidates face-to-face, with Rutherford himself having stressed the team above all else ... that's not ideal.

To echo from above, though, I get it. He felt he'd invested more than he was getting back. And the same seemingly impulsive nature that led to his relentless trading took over.

Yet again, what's done is done.

What comes next is what matters now.

Patrik Allvin's not the guy. Not yet. He's been with the franchise forever, he's been building the right resume, he's beyond impressive in person, and for what it's worth, he'll be a formal candidate. But a handful of months as an assistant GM won't cut it, and he's spent most of his adult life in amateur scouting. Besides, when the press release announcing someone's interim status notes that he'll be free to consult with the owner -- Lemieux -- that's ... yeah.

There are a few candidates Dave Molinari's already cobbled together, and there'll be more in the days and weeks ahead. There aren't any yet that leap to my own mind, at least not after Jason Botterill's brief, blah tenure in Buffalo.

But this remark from Morehouse did leap out, regarding the profile the Penguins will seek: "The criterion is the same criterion we've had here for the last almost 15 years, and that's to win the Stanley Cup. We're looking for someone who's going to be able to come in, take a very talented team with a very good coaching staff and take it as far as they can take it. We're not in a rebuilding mode. We're in a win-now mode. And we're going to continue to be in that mode, until we're in a rebuilding mode. Right now, we're looking for someone who can come in and continue having us work toward winning another Cup."

All of that ... sounds good. But I wonder.

Sidney Crosby's 33. As long as he's in Pittsburgh, there can't be a full-blown rebuild. I'm a big believer in that. He's done too much for the franchise to waste a single shift of his time here.

But Evgeni Malkin's 34, going on 44 if judging by his play to open the season. Kris Letang's 33, going on 23 judging by some of the maddening decisions he's never stopped making. And as such, the core doesn't necessarily need to be three players or even two players, but just the one.

Does Morehouse's description of a new GM -- which came across as a carbon copy of Rutherford -- really fit what's needed to make moves like these?

And when I say moves like these, I'm absolutely talking about trading one or two star veterans, one of them among the greats of his generation, with a clear goal of getting younger, fresher, faster and, in turn, extending Crosby's own career. Because that's how this would have to go, at least to anyone who witnessed the past two playoffs. It can't be vet for vet. It just can't.

That's not to suggest Rutherford couldn't make such a move. He correctly recognized Daniel Sprong's shortcomings early in his time here, then used him to astutely pluck Marcus Pettersson, then 22, from Anaheim. But when I'm thinking of infusing youth, I'm thinking of a different approach, maybe even a different skill set for a GM.

I want someone with a track record of building.

I want someone who can create what the Bruins, the Penguins' opponents again tonight in Boston, have. They've carried the same core forever, with Patrice Bergeron, Tuukka Rask, David Krejci, Brad Marchand and until this winter Zdeno Chara, and they've done so by constantly supplementing below. They haven't shipped away their second-round draft picks for a month of Patrick Marleau, their first-round picks for ... anything. They've kept planting seeds for the next Charlie McAvoy.

Who can do that in Pittsburgh?

That's the question I'd love to see answered.

The last thing anyone should want is to see this franchise handcuffed tangibly by a lack of energy or, for that matter, intangibly by a lack of enthusiasm that can follow a feeling that this is all falling apart. And the only solution for that is youth.

It won't be an easy process nor a breezy one, by all accounts, and that's as it should be. But neither should it be one based on immediate needs.

We've seen plenty enough of reacting to immediate needs.

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