Stanley Cup finalists Penguins, Predators full of connections
As you watch the PITTSBURGH Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final, here are five interesting connections between the two teams that are worth pondering.
The trade: Nashville general manager David Poile and Pittsburgh general manager Jim Rutherford made a 2014 trade that has helped both teams get to where they are. The Predators, needing a dangerous scorer off the rush, acquired James Neal from the Penguins for forward Nick Spaling and feisty, battling winger Patric Hornqvist.
Today, Neal and Hornqvist are critical to their respective teams. Neal scored 23 goals this season, and Hornqvist, a net-front presence, had 21.
The coach: Peter Laviolette has taken the Predators further than they had ever been, but Poile isn’t the only general manager in the series who knows how Laviolette thinks.
Rutherford was Laviolette’s general manager in 2006 when Laviolette won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes.
The player: Matt Cullen is an indispensable fourth-line center for the Penguins, but he spent two seasons in Nashville before joining Pittsburgh in 2015. He was there before Laviolette arrived.
But Cullen’s best season came in 2005-06. Who was his coach? Laviolette.
Cullen had a 25-goal season while playing for Laviolette during the Hurricanes’ march to the 2006 Stanley Cup. He probably understands Laviolette as well as
any Nashville player.
The contributor: In 1998, Poile hired Ray Shero as his assistant general manager. Shero views Poile as his mentor, and Poile’s style unquestionably influenced Shero’s thinking.
Today, Shero is the New Jersey Devils’ general manager. Before that job, he was in Pittsburgh and drafted or acquired several of the players in this year’s Stanley Cup Final, including goalie Matt Murray, leading playoff scorer Jake Guentzel and forward Bryan Rust. Shero presumably would love to see his former boss, Poile, win a Cup, but his managerial efforts from a few years ago could help prevent that from happening. The opportunity: In 2012, the Predators should have owned the 21st pick in the NHL draft.
But they had traded their first-round pick in a deal to acquire Paul Gaustad from the Buffalo Sabres. Eventually, that pick went to the Calgary Flames, who selected Mark Jankowski. Had the Predators retained the pick, they could have considered taking talented Finnish defenseman Olli Maatta.
He was drafted by the Penguins with the 22nd pick. Maatta is one of their top four defensemen in this Stanley Cup Final.