IT’S ALL IN THE TIMING
NHL trades that worked
Without Jim Rutherford’s quick trigger finger, there would have been no gooey HBK sandwiches from the Primanti Bros. in Pittsburgh last spring.
Because there would have been no HBK Line to name them after. For that matter, without some of the other moves Rutherford orchestrated during the 2015-16 season, there would have been no Stanley Cup title for the Penguins, either.
This was much more than an example of an NHL general manager tweaking his team at the trade deadline. Indeed, Rutherford’s acquisition of defenceman Justin Schultz from the Edmonton Oilers 12 months ago was merely the exclamation mark on a complete overhaul of the roster surrounding stars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.
In the seven months prior to the 2016 NHL trade deadline, Rutherford pulled the trigger on deals that brought in forwards Carl Hagelin (Anaheim), Nick Bonino (Vancouver), Phil Kessel (Toronto) — the three players who would go on to make up the HBK Line — plus Schultz and fellow blueliner Trevor Daley. And it didn’t stop there.
“I also replaced our coach (Mike Johnston) with Mike Sullivan and brought up five guys from our farm team, too,” Rutherford said in a phone interview. “I just didn’t like the way we were playing before then.”
So, he blew the whole thing up, core players excluded.
“You’ve suggested that I’m trying to take advantage of the window of having Sid and (Malkin) by doing what it takes to win now. There’s some truth to that,” Rutherford said. “But last season, there was no window. I had to create one. We needed to get faster. And that’s what we did.”
By taking scoring pressure off franchise centrepieces Crosby and Malkin during the Penguins’ impressive run to the Cup, the HBK Line became fan favourites, so much so that Primanti Bros. created a triple-meat sandwich of ham, bacon and kielbasa in honour of its members.
But Schultz became a key cog in the march to the title as well, especially after Daley broke his ankle in the Eastern Conference final against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“Schultz played a top-six role for us and was there when we needed him,” Rutherford said.
Since the salary cap was first implemented in 2005, there have been mixed reviews regarding trade-deadline deals. Specifically, whether they actually play a role in helping teams go on to win a Stanley Cup.
If you are Brian Burke, for example, you don’t believe in the trade deadline, feeling that the value of players at that time is ridiculously overvalued. When Burke’s Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007, he made one move at the deadline — acquiring Brad May — then saw the rugged forward go on to record just one playoff point.
The 2010 Chicago Blackhawks took Burke’s philosophy one step further — they didn’t make any deals. In the end, such inactivity did nothing to keep the team from hoisting its first Cup in almost half a century.
More recently, however, that trend seems to be changing. During the past few seasons, deadline moves have proven to be key for teams that ended up going all the way.
In 2015, the Blackhawks were mystified when forward Antoine Vermette registered just three points in 19 games after being acquired from the Arizona Coyotes. But after sitting out a handful of times as a healthy scratch, he became an unsung hero in the post-season, scoring three gamewinners in the final two rounds, including Games 1 and 5 of the final against the Lightning.
Vermette was a trade-deadline pickup who became a differencemaker in his new team’s march to the Stanley Cup, much the same way Marian Gaborik had been for the Los Angeles Kings in 2014.
Picked up from Columbus at the 2014 deadline, Gaborik roared to 22 points, including a playoff-best 14 goals, en route to helping the Kings win their second Stanley Cup in three years.
As for Rutherford, he’s shown a history of going all in when it comes to augmenting his roster to make a Cup run. Back in 2006 as GM of the Carolina Hurricanes, he landed forwards Mark Recchi and Doug Weight at deadline time, pushing the Canes over the top in their bid for the Cup.
“We had a shot, we went all in,” Rutherford said.
Last Thursday, Rutherford was at it again, landing veteran defenceman Ron Hainsey from the Hurricanes for a secondround pick and a prospect. With defencemen Daley, Schultz, Letang and Olli Maatta all banged up, Rutherford jumped at the opportunity.
“We were going after a D-man even before those guys were all hurt,” he said. “We’ve liked Hainsey a lot. He plays more than 20 minutes a game and he kills penalties. If you see someone you like and the deal makes sense, why wait?”
Trader Jim has spoken.