GM tries to deny he will trade one of his stars, but falls a little bit short.

First and foremost, this isn't a call out of Jim Rutherford, he has a job to do and under the circumstances he is facing he can hardly be blamed for these comments.

The Pittsburgh Penguins general manager faced some tough question this morning regarding the trade of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, and considering the contract signed by goaltender Matt Murray this morning it's no surprise why those question were being asked. If you missed our report on the Murray signing you can see that here.

With Murray's new contract, as well as the threat of the expansion draft at the end of the season, there's little to no doubt among pundits and insiders that Fleury will be traded before the end of the season, and while Rutherford tried to deny that today, he couldn't bring himself to flat out refute the rumors.

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"Let's not just presume that Marc is out. ... I think we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves with that assumption."

Rutherford could have come out with a strong denial, but he frankly didn't even come close, and while we believe he would like to keep both of his guys, it now seems even less likely than it did just 24 hours ago.