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Whenever the NHL trade deadline arrives, Penguins fans want the team to trade against Ron Francis again. As in 1991.
It's metaphorically speaking. But the nostalgia of local hockey is of the opinion that a blockbuster is a harbinger of the victory of the Stanley Cup, especially since this is what happened again the following year, in 1992, with Rick Tocchet. (More recent cuts have generated another kind of nostalgia: "H-B-K! H-B-K!" And the idea that Ian Cole is irreplaceable.)
What GM Jim Rutherford did on the NHL trade deadline, however, did not stop the victory. He has entered into two minor transactions that are likely to be of no consequence.
Hope anyway. Defender Chris Wideman was sent to the Penguins minor league branch in Wilkes-Barre / Scranton immediately after his Florida acquisition. Kris Letang, Brian Dumoulin and Olli Maatta were all injured.
A cholera outbreak would probably be needed to pressure Wideman to play in the NHL.
But bringing in defender Erik Gudbranson of Vancouver is not likely to lead to bouquets scattered at the feet of Rutherford. Not at first, certainly.
Gudbranson has the worst / worst NHL at under-27. If you are not in love with this statistic, the advanced metrics of Gudbranson are also very bad.
But acquiring Gudbranson involves practically no risk. Giving winger Tanner Pearson in exchange is not a loss. The ceiling of the Penguins only increases by a quarter of a million. Gudbranson is a decent solution considering the injury situation. He pulls right – big plus.
When Letang returns, Gudbranson becomes the right defender of the lower pair. Paying $ 3.75 million pro rata is a bit expensive, but it's not my money.
Gudbranson's partner on this lower pair could easily be Jack Johnson. Those who are fond of whimsical statistics might be in danger of exploding.
Getting Gudbranson is a minor business. He signed for two more years, but someone would trade for him. Rutherford did it. Gudbranson was the third overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. He has the pedigree and size (6-foot-5, 217-pound), but not the style of the NHL nowadays.
Johnson has not flourished since coming to Pittsburgh this past season. But a few blue line recovery projects have transformed their careers: Justin Schultz and Marcus Pettersson in the current team, Cole and Trevor Daley in the recent past.
This could be coaching, especially the individual supervision provided by the assistant Sergei Gonchar. It can be to play with better players or a simple change of scenery.
But getting Gudbranson can not implode, because the Penguins have left little to acquire it. If he stinks, play at someone else. Getting Letang and Dumoulin to be healthy as soon as possible (and possibly Maatta) is much more worrying. Maybe Gudbranson is just a replacement. If it turns out to be better, it would help.
But citizens love to get angry, because a general manager who is the architect of two Cups over the past three years deserves no benefit of the doubt.
Do you remember the reaction of Hoi Polloi when the Penguins sent winger Daniel Sprong to Anaheim for Pettersson on December 3rd? You would have thought that Rutherford had dropped Rocket Richard. But Sprong has been a healthy scratch for the last four games of the Ducks, and Pettersson has been more than helpful in playing a regular quarterback.
You lose, Twitter.
Some trades work. Some do not do it. No GM is foolproof.
The most likely result of Rutherford's futures this season is that neither will be of great importance.
Letang, Dumoulin and Maatta, health is important. Phil Kessel and Patric Hornqvist are important to tackle.
Matt Murray, finding consistency is the most important of all.
The goalkeeper was diabolically bad in the 4-3 overtime loss to the Penguins at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday. The goals and the victories were terrible, and the Flyers' first goal was scored on a shootout that was their only chance to succeed in the first period.
Murray was not useless. His .912 save percentage and 2.97 goals-against average are two-digit averages. Murray became red after returning from injury in mid-December, winning nine straight wins and conceding just 14 goals in those games.
But Murray's bad exits and bad goals can be terrible and he has clearly lost the confidence of the coaching staff. Murray is also fragile.
If Murray plays badly or fails to find consistency or hurts himself again, nothing else than the Penguins does not matter. Certainly not the two transactions at the Rutherford deadline.
Mark Madden hosts a radio show from 3pm to 6pm. weekdays on WXDX-FM 105.9.
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