GM roots for Fleury, eyes defenseman, more depth
team looking to make history. Meanwhile, there are others who think the NHL stacked the deck, allowing Vegas to play by a set of rules designed to make it competitive right away because owner Bill Foley paid $550 million to enter the league.
Count Rutherford among those who believe the Golden Knights should be applauded, not ridiculed, for what they’ve done.
“You can’t give [general manager] George McPhee and [coach] Gerard Gallant enough credit for what they’ve done there,” Rutherford said. “People talk about the expansion rules and things like that. Somebody still had to put it together. They did remarkable jobs.”
At the forefront has been Fleury, who has a 1.68 goalsagainst average and .947 save percentage to go with four shutouts, the best postseason ofhis career by a mile.
Fleury’s dominance has led many Penguins fans to question the organization’s decision to protect Matt Murray in the expansion draft and send a 2020 second-round pick to Vegas to ensure McPheeselected Fleury.
Rutherford understands that argument, but obviously doesn’t agree with it.
“When somebody replaces a star player who’s very popular in a city, it’s the natural thing to do,” Rutherford said. “It’s been done over and over in every sport. People live in the moment. They don’t think of the overall picture.
“If you go back to a year ago, even the last two years, it would be a different story. I’m sure if you wind the clock ahead one more year, to next year, it’ll be a different story.”
When Murray was healthy, of course, he made the majority of starts, and Fleury was relegated to backup duty. That led to Fleury and Rutherford working together to find an exit strategy.
Fleury couldn’t be happier in Vegas, and Rutherford, it seems, couldn’t be happier for him.
“We did what we had to do,” Rutherford said. “It was tough for Marc those two years when Murray came in and outplayed him and played the majority of games. Whether there was expansion or not, Marc wanted to move on. He and I worked together on that. We worked and worked and got him to the place that he wanted to go. He’s taking the opportunity and taking it to the limits. I am very, very happy for him.”
Offseason plans
As the Penguins face a longer offseason than they’ve grown accustomed to in recent years, two needs have bubbled to the surface for Rutherford.
They include getting more balanced production from all four lines and adding a defenseman — ideally right-handed — to bolster their third pairing.
Rutherford also said Monday he would like to complete a contract extension with winger Bryan Rust this summer, provided the salary cap affords the Penguins the flexibility to do it.
“I think we will probably look at getting a little more balance throughout the whole lineup,” Rutherford said. “We want to make sure we have the four lines that can produce. We may be able to do that from within, depending on how it gets structured.”
Rutherford previously said top prospect Daniel Sprong will be with the NHL club next season, which would theoretically enable someone such as Rust or Conor Sheary to add an element of offense to the fourth line.
On defense, Rutherford wants a reliable option so Sullivan can deploy his third pairing more and lessen the minutes for Kris Letang.
“Using [Letang] the amount of minutes we were using him, I think it puts him in a tougher spot, certainly in a spot to make more mistakes,” Rutherford said of Letang, who averaged a team-high 25:15 in the regular season, which was 3:20 more than anyone else.
“That’s why I’d like to get a defenseman that we could ease the minutes off of him. I believe if we do that, you’re going to see a different player.”
That player doesn’t necessarily have to be righthanded, Rutherford said, but “if you can get a right-shot defenseman, you can never have enough good right shot defensemen.”
One player who could fit that mold is Juuso Riikola, a Finnish defenseman the Penguins signed last week.