In just over a year, turn expiring Hagelin into Gudbranson‘s contract and term. Try to trade back for him. Use Connor Sheary to create cap space to sign JMFJ to 5 years. Oleksiak gets a 3 year deal based off a tiny sample, then JR adds like 4 LH defenseman and trades him half a season into that deal. Almost immediately turn around and shop JJ/Guds for what’s gonna be trash for trash, spare parts at best.
At least optically, this is seemingly a GM without a plan derailing his own roster. Nearly all cap/roster issues have been self-inflicted and he’s beginning to seriously unravel this team. No lineup continuity due to constant deals, and going on year 3 of trades it just feels like desperation, throwing **** and hoping it sticks at this point.
Appreciate Rutherford’s work in the 2 cups, he seriously was magic for those... but I can’t think of many other situations in the league where if this was happening I’d sit from a neutral perspective and think this isn’t the beginning of the end for JR, and possibly the coach. Maybe it already needs to be over.
You pretty much nailed it.
There was a time when he made very ballsy calls and gambled to take the Pens from being a tame, easy playoff out (Shero years) to being a legit threat. The three part cocktail of JR's moves (the big trades, the little additions, the "fixing his mistakes" trades) + the maturation of solid role players from WBS + the arrival of Sullivan were what made us a dangerous team those years.
But now he's painted himself into a corner with his roster moves, and no longer has the future assets or the cap room to exhibit his previous creativity. He's just not the guy to get us out of the situation we're currently in. I hope management can just have a conversation with him and take the keys away.
If someone can come in and solve the salary issues with bloated contracts, as well as the players that still don't seem to fit, then I think we have the younger talent to step up and breathe a little life into the season. Galchenyuk and McCann to step up in the top 6, Teddy and Lafferty in the bottom 6, and guys like Rikkola and Marino to help out on the blue line (for a fraction of what Gudbranson and JJ cost). Better yet if we can free that salary and secure guys like the above six (and Murray) on a longer term basis we might be able to keep the window open a little longer.
A big litmus test for me would've been Bjugstad. Of course, with the injury that's kind of gone, but if Rutherford had've moved Bjug (a talented but, right now, ill-fitting player) for a similarly underperforming asset, that would've been emblematic of the early Pens JR that was not afraid to cut bait if one of his moves was a flop. Of course, if he's handcuffed his ability to make a larger deal because of his other bad signings, that's entirely on him.
