Jim Rutherford buries Alex Galchenyuk, the man he traded Phil Kessel to get.

Incredible comments from the Penguins GM.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Jim Rutherford buries Alex Galchenyuk, the man he traded Phil Kessel to get.
Chris Szagola/CSM/Zuma

This is never the way you want your general manager to be talking when he is discussing a player he just traded one of your team's best offensive assets for. 

Over the summer the Pittsburgh Penguins were involved in arguably the hottest topic of the National Hockey League's offseason when it became abundantly clear to both those on the inside of the organization, as well as to fans and pundits outside the organization, that superstar forward Phil Kessel was going to be traded out of Pittsburgh. All reports suggested at the time that the situation behind the scenes between Kessel and fellow players, like Evgeni Malkin, coacheslike Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan, and possibly others had deteriorated so badly that it simply could not be allowed to continue. This of course left Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford in a very tough spot given the trade protection provided to Kessel by his contract and given the fact that every other general manager knew that Rutherford was dealing from a position of weakness. 

Unfortunately I think we can now safely say that the trade that Rutherford made in the end was a bad one for the Penguins, at least as far as their on ice product is concerned. Kessel has continued to be an offensive threat for the Arizona Coyotes since being traded with the veteran forward recording 6 goals and 11 assists for a total of 17 points through his first 31 games of the regular season with the Coyotes. Of course those numbers show a sharp decline from his time with the Penguins where he played alongside some elite level players, but the drop off for Alex Galchenyuk, the man the Penguins acquired in that trade, has been even more staggering.

After putting up 19 goals and 22 assists for the Coyotes in just 72 games during the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season Galchenyuk's production has fallen off a cliff with the Penguins. The 25 year old forward has just 2 goals and 8 assists for 10 total points in his first 20 games as a Penguin and now it sounds like there may be serious doubts about his future with the team. In a recent conversation with The Athletic, Rutherford admitted that the player he got in exchange for Phil Kessel might not even fit within his top 12 group of forwards.

“The fact of the matter is, when we’re totally healthy, he’s going to have to work very hard just to get in the top 12,” Rutherford said as per The Athletic. “That’s just the way it is, because we have a lot of guys playing well. So, that’s the good news and the bad news.”

Kessel has often been mocked throughout his career for being a player that others have perceived as lazy or less than fully committed to the game. The same can not be said of Alex Galchenyuk however given that Rutherford says the player has been giving it his all to try and make things fit with the Penguins.

“Oh yeah,” Rutherford said. “Very hard worker. He’s always out late after practice. I see him working. He’s giving it all he has.”

Unfortunately it seems as though all he has may not be enough to maintain his spot on the Penguins main roster.

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