Confirmed with Link: Rutherford signs 3 year extension

[ImporterExporter]

Some people :

He's the only reason this team won a SC less than a month ago. Would Shero have absolutely owned Toronto in getting Phil the Thrill on the cheap??? Would Shero have dumped Scuderi? Would he have brought Hagelin in? Fired Mike Johnston? Etc. Etc.

This doesn't necessarily mean he'll be GM all 3 years. Just that he has a contract with the Pens for 3 years. Botteril could still take over the reigns within that timeframe.

 

[Fordy]

i really don't understand you people. jr has a whole career before the penguins. this is the nhl, no one is (supposed to be) permanent

i hope he kills it for 3 more years, i hope if he doesn't he changes positions, and botterill decides to hang around and wait all that time, like some have suggested, but there's no reason to assume that's going to happen. it's just not the way this team has operated

 

[Lustaf]

I don't like it.

 

[The Old Master]

we are doomed! the man had a total of 2 good yrs.....how long has he been a gm?
....

 

[Jacob]

I could go either way on this. Seems like we're likely to lose Botterill by then, but I'm not sure "grooming" GMs or coaches is all it's cracked up to be. It also doesn't exclude us from putting Rutherford into a higher spot like team president in a few years and then giving Botterill the GM job.

And if we lose Botterill and Rutherford stays on as GM for the next 4 years there will certainly be other good GM candidates available at that point, I'm sure.

 

[Asuna]

The way the NHL *appears* to be trending towards speed and skill....and JR has always loved those things...I don't really see this as a bad thing. So cool, I guess.

 

[Waffle Fries]

There's not much meaning behind this outside of providing financial security to a guy who just led us to a Cup. He probably won't serve as GM for the full term, but he'll have a role within the org.

 

[plaidchuck]

Letting Boteril go will be a mistake IMO.

 

[ImporterExporter]

Nobody has any clue as to how Botterill would fare as a NHL GM. None. He's a complete unknown.

JR is not. We know that he just had a tremendously great year and identified players AND a coach that brought us a Cup win.

Also, again, since this seems to go right over some people's heads......JR may not even finish out the 3 years as GM. It simply ties him financially to the Pens for 3 years, not the GM role.

 

[Brandinho]

Makes me extremely nervous because there's a non-zero possibility that things go completely **** up and I'm not happy with how he's handled this offseason so far. On the other hand, 3 years suggests he's taking a lot of personal accountability to continue to win rather than signing for 1 more year and looking at it as a victory lap.

 

[billybudd]

I was expecting him to move up to a VP of hockey ops position (leaving Botterill to be GM) or retire.

I could go either way on this. Seems like we're likely to lose Botterill by then, but I'm not sure "grooming" GMs or coaches is all it's cracked up to be. It also doesn't exclude us from putting Rutherford into a higher spot like team president in a few years and then giving Botterill the GM job.

And if we lose Botterill and Rutherford stays on as GM for the next 4 years there will certainly be other good GM candidates available at that point, I'm sure.

Guess that's still possible.

 

[billybudd]

Makes me extremely nervous because there's a non-zero possibility that things go completely **** up and I'm not happy with how he's handled this offseason so far. On the other hand, 3 years suggests he's taking a lot of personal accountability to continue to win rather than signing for 1 more year and looking at it as a victory lap.

He won the Stanley Cup last year and the best player we've lost so far is Ben Lovejoy, a guy that almost everyone hated his guts.

Jesus people have short memories.

 

[Peat]

He won the Stanley Cup last year and the best player we've lost so far is Ben Lovejoy, a guy that almost everyone hated his guts.

Jesus people have short memories.

Well that's the point.

People wanted to lose better players than Lovejoy so we could bring even better players back.

One of the big fears after losing a cup is that a team becomes convinced they have the magic formula and end up stagnating while other teams come in and steal their thunder. Sitting tight this summer isn't the most reassuring thing from this angle. Keeping the guy who built the team, a guy with a reputation for excessive loyalty, that ain't the most reassuring thing ever.

I guess I'm wait and see. He could do another round of big-midseason trades that guide us to the repeat. He could ruin us. He could so bum-squiddly all season and look like a genius when Sullivan brings out even more from the team and they repeat. Or something else. See what happens when the wheels come off.

 

[canadianguy77]

Par for the course. This organization is never truly satisfied until it runs something or someone into the ground. Leaving things on a high note is a foreign concept to them.

 

[ImporterExporter]

People think everything is like an EA sports game or FHM where you can just wheel and deal with a ****ing computer (IE Kunitz/Fleury/Fehr).

Pens board logic: (I've heard more than one person throw each of these out there like it was basic math logic)

"Well we could dump Kunitz for some picks and then sign Boedker (a better LW)"

"Fleury had to be dealt at the draft. Calgary offered, we blew our chance to keep Murray now"

"Let's maximize Bonino's value and break up the most potent line in hockey the last month of the season and postseason."

"We're not doing anything on day 1 of FA. This team and JR are getting complacent and think they have **** figured out. Need to get better".......you know, majorly shake up a Cup winning roster that returns largely intact logic!

 

[Brandinho]

He won the Stanley Cup last year and the best player we've lost so far is Ben Lovejoy, a guy that almost everyone hated his guts.

Jesus people have short memories.

That's a terrible and disingenuous argument. What he did last season is over. His overall legacy will be judged on what he's done cumulatively, but evaluating an extension or what I expect from him going forward categorically excludes anything he's done in the past. Not moving Fleury was a bad decision. Not moving Kunitz was a slightly less bad decision. That is not a good start to the offseason in my book. Feel free to disagree if you'd like, but get out of here with that "short memory" nonsense.

 

[chethejet]

He did well upgrading the forwards. But like shero, how good do you have to be with Sid, Geno and Letang and MAF? But adding kessel was very good for what they gave up. He better hope Oli comes back looking like his best form three years ago. I thought the extension was early and unwarranted. I think the credit is the coaching change, player development. But he saw the big picture and continued to upgrade and had a belief in the type of of play the team needed to play.

 

[Brandinho]

He did well upgrading the forwards. But like shero, how good do you have to be with Sid, Geno and Letang and MAF? But adding kessel was very good for what they gave up. He better hope Oli comes back looking like his best form three years ago. I thought the extension was early and unwarranted. I think the credit is the coaching change, player development. But he saw the big picture and continued to upgrade and had a belief in the type of of play the team needed to play.

One thing that I really liked was that he was very aware of when something wasn't working and took active steps to correct it. You can credit the coaching change and player development, but he had a hand in all of that as well.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

People think everything is like an EA sports game or FHM where you can just wheel and deal with a ****ing computer (IE Kunitz/Fleury/Fehr).

Pens board logic: (I've heard more than one person throw each of these out there like it was basic math logic)

"Well we could dump Kunitz for some picks and then sign Boedker (a better LW)"

"Fleury had to be dealt at the draft. Calgary offered, we blew our chance to keep Murray now"

"Let's maximize Bonino's value and break up the most potent line in hockey the last month of the season and postseason."

"We're not doing anything on day 1 of FA. This team and JR are getting complacent and think they have **** figured out. Need to get better".......you know, majorly shake up a Cup winning roster that returns largely intact logic!

Somebody gets it....

Somebody gets it.

 

[Freeptop]

He did well upgrading the forwards. But like shero, how good do you have to be with Sid, Geno and Letang and MAF? But adding kessel was very good for what they gave up. He better hope Oli comes back looking like his best form three years ago. I thought the extension was early and unwarranted. I think the credit is the coaching change, player development. But he saw the big picture and continued to upgrade and had a belief in the type of of play the team needed to play.

Well, it can't be all that easy to do with just those guys, considering the 7 year gap between Cup wins...

I mean, sure, they certainly make the job easier, but I'd think the intervening years prove that there still is a fair amount of effort involved in building the rest of the team around them!

 

[AjaxTelamon]

The current overall organization under JR seems to be doing well, on the same page, and effectively developing players and acquiring the ones they need. The fact that JR was the driving force in bringing analytics to the franchise can't be discounted either. I like that he was willing to admit a mistake and move on from MJ and Perron. A younger guy with more to prove might not have the perspective to pull that off. Shero sure didn't with DB.

I can't fault them for keeping the current regime together, so good deal.

 

[Darth Vitale]

Someone said it earlier. I think this is a combination of the Cup runneth over and of the possibility Vegas might make Botterill an offer.

Way to go Jimmy... just don't go all dementia on us, all right bro?

 

[Ugene Magic]

He deserves it.

It's not even about making a mistake, you can't be scared to make a mistake. They happen.

The only thing that would scare me is if the money train falls out from under him. That's where things will go sour for any GM.

This isn't like Carolina where they changed season by season if they were going to spend on the team. Budget teams are not winning a thing. They might fluke into a championship, but they won't be winning consistently.

So far, he doesn't have to look between the pillows to find money for players.Thanks Burkle/Mario and ownership group.

It wasn't perfect but he got the job done a lot faster then I'm sure any of us thought.

Bravo....!

JR.

 

[madinsomniac]

Take a quick peek at all the ahl guys he extended before the cup run and figure what kind of pickle we'd be in had we had to pay all those roleplayers market value right now

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

First good move of the offseason!