Pens GM Rutherford hints at who he will trade this summer!

Yeah, he probably got the message…

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Pens GM Rutherford hints at who he will trade this summer!
Zuma Press

It was clear that the Pittsburgh Penguins were set to make significant changes this offseason after getting eliminated in four games by the New York Islanders in the first round of the playoffs. 

While for some time insiders tried to guess at what moves we could end up seeing this summer in Pittsburgh, it seems like GM Jim Rutherford wanted to be up front about his intentions and started revealing what he has up his sleeves for roster changes. 

“It’s good to be in the position we’re in,” Rutherford said ti the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on Tuesday. “We’re in a stronger position now than we were a year ago or maybe even a couple years ago.

“But it will be difficult to keep all of our defencemen and keep them happy. I’m sure with the amount of teams who are looking for defencemen, we’ll have to move at least one.”

The Pens have over $79 million invested in 18 players for 2019-20 and needs to shed salary this summer if they want to get younger and faster for next season. They have have six of the nine defensemen from their playoff roster under contract for next season, with Marcus Pettersson set to become a restricted free agent. 

Of the six blue liners under contract - Kris Letang, Justin Schultz, Brian Dumoulin, Olli Maatta, Erik Gudbranson and Jack Johnson - Jason Mackey of the Post-Gazette believes Maatta is the most likely candidate for a trade despite the fact that Johnson was a healthy scratch for the first game of the postseason. Maatta carries a $4.083 million cap hit through the 2021-22 season.

The untouchables always appear to be Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, however some team insiders cannot agree on whether defenseman Kris Letang, star goalie Matt Murray and winger Jake Guentzel are also on that list. 

Some players are starting to get nervous…