Slow market for trades, cap woes slow up GM

which Rutherford said he expected.

“There was nothing that made any sense to us,” Rutherford said. “That was pretty much it in general. You usually see a lot more deals at the draft than you did. I would say this process has slowed down league-wide, which means it slowed down for us.”

The big reasons for that were John Tavares and Ilya Kovalchuk. Tavares could be the biggest unrestricted free agent on the market — by a long shot — if he actually gets there. Kovalchuk, a one-time NHL star who had been playing in the KHL, signed a three-year contract with the Los Angeles Kings over the weekend.

Tavares currently is talking to potential suitors — the Penguins are not one — and simultaneously gumming up theprocess, Rutherford said.

“He’s going to let me know by 5 if he’ll play as a third-line center,” Rutherford joked about his team being linked to Tavares. “I’m creative. I’m not a magician.”

The good part here, Rutherford insisted, is there’s no deadline, and he feels zero pressure to get something done.

“I think it would be good if we could make a few changes,” Rutherford said. “But, if we don’t, we still have a good team.”

So, what changes can you expect?

Rutherford talked about potentially adding a defenseman but didn’t necessarily call it an urgent matter. And if the Penguins clear up enough cap space, it probably won’t be completely repurposed on an unrestricted free agent.

“It’ll be twofold,” Rutherford said. “If we clear up more cap space, it may give us a chance to sign certain players to longer-term contracts.

Then it would leave us some cap space to do something at some other time. Does it give us a chance to sign a bigger contract? Probably not.”

The practical application here would be contract extensions for two restricted free agents, Bryan Rust and Riley Sheahan. The Penguins like both — Rust for his versatility and speed, Sheahan for his faceoff ability and defense — but lack the funds to do anything more than hand them qualifying offers and pray arbitration is kind.

Tucking some of that money away also could help the Penguins when Jake Guentzel and Matt Murray are due substantial raises next offseason.

Another thing Rutherford wants is to get more production out of his fourth line.

He has spoken often about finding more balance — which remains an important thing — and one way to solve that is getting goals from the fourth line, something that didn’t happen nearly enough in 2017-18.

“I’d like to get more production out of our fourth line,” Rutherford said. “I think it makes it more difficult for the players when you’re putting extra pressure on the top two lines and the power play.

“We have good enough players to carry us through that, but I’d prefer they don’t feel that extra pressure.”

There’s a couple of ways that can happen. Signing Dominik Simon and Daniel Sprong to contract extensions, as the Penguins did, can have a trickle-down effect. If Sprong played with Sidney Crosby, Patric Hornqvist could be their thirdline right wing, bumping Bryan Rust to the fourth. Simon also is capable of contributing, Rutherford insisted Monday.

Or the Penguins could sign someone externally, although Rutherford seemed to play down that idea.

“The balance is the big thing,” Rutherford said. “With the forwards we have, even if we moved one out, we still have enough forwards to create the four-line balance within the group we have, which was helped by the inseason deals with Sheahan and[Derick] Brassard.

“The fact that we’ve got the structure down the middle and we’ve got good young wingers coming, we can do that from within.”

What transpired Monday almost guarantees Conor Sheary won’t be back. If the Penguins are enamored with their young wingers, then Sheary’s $3 million contract seems a bit superfluous given some of his extended scoring struggles over the past two seasons.

If it’s not Sheary, then you would think Rutherford is dangling Carl Hagelin and his $4 million salary — again, trying to trade from a strength. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist aren’t going anywhere. Probably not Phil Kessel, either.

They could trade Brassard, but Rutherford pretty much insisted Brassard, Jamie Oleksiak and Zach Aston-Reese will kill penalties whether they’re good at it or not.

That leaves Sheary and Hagelin as the only two forwards with contracts who would offer any breathing room in a move.

But like he said before, Rutherford is taking his time sorting it all out.

“You don’t win the Cup in June or July,” Rutherford said. “You have until the trade deadline to put the finishing touches on it. If I felt our team had to improve to compete in the regular season, then I’d feel more urgency. But I don’t feel that.

“With that being said, my preference would be to make a few changes.”