The Pittsburgh Penguins scored what could be considered a pretty important victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night. Riding a two-game losing streak and losers of four of their last five and five of their last seven, the Penguins seemed to be on the verge of something like an early season crisis. And while the 4-2 victory over the Avs probably felt great for captain Sidney Crosby, head coach Mike Johnston and the rest of the guys in the Pittsburgh locker room, the sense around the NHL is that it won't change much for Penguins GM Jim Rutherford or, more importantly, his continued pursuit of defensive upgrades.
Dreger: "I don't feel like that win in Colorado is going to change things a whole lot." #Pens
— Chris Nichols (@NicholsOnHockey) December 10, 2015
Dreger: "I know that Jim Rutherford is working hard, trying to make a trade. He's still looking for that defenseman." #Pens — Chris Nichols (@NicholsOnHockey) December 10, 2015
Per TSN NHL insider Darren Dreger, via Chris Nichols, Rutherford remains hot on the trail of a trade for a defenseman. It has been suggested previously that Rutherford would like to get his hands on a top-four blueliner and was "looking hard" at the NHL landscape in order to identify one he could potentially bring in. At this point, Rutherford seems to have focused in on "a couple of defenseman he thinks would help," but the biggest impediment to a deal at this point may not be compensation.
With the salary cap projected to rise modestly, if at all, next season - commissioner Gary Bettman suggested it would rise about $3 million to $74.5 million, though GMs are said to be expecting something closer of $1 million - and plenty of teams up against the cap already, trades are said to be difficult to enact at this point.
Looking at the Penguins roster, it's difficult to see where Rutherford could shed enough salary in order to bring on a top-four defender contract without crippling his team in terms of on-ice talent. According to General Fanager, Rutherford has about $389,584 in cap space to work with. Players like David Perron, Sergei Plotnikov, Beau Benntt and Olli Maatta currently remain without contracts for next season. And Chris Kunitz and Rob Scuderi aren't far behind.
With the news that Pascal Dupuis will be "stepping away" from the game, the team will place him and his $3.75 million cap hit on long-term injured reserve and open up a roster spot and some cap space.
Will about $4 million be enough to fit a top-four defenseman under the cap? Not likely, though considering the lack of high picks the Pens currently possess thanks to other trades in recent seasons, it's probably pretty safe to assume that any deal at this point would include a roster player or two.
Per The Fourth Period, the only players with no-move clauses in their contracts are the usual suspects - Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury, Phil Kessel, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin. The players with no-trade clauses are Dupuis, Rob Scuderi and Patric Hornqvist.
A player like David Perron, in the final year of a deal that carries a $3.812 million, would, at one time at least, probably looked pretty attractive to a team looking to beef up its offense for the run up to and into the NHL playoffs. Perron though, playing alongside Malkin on the Pens' second unit, has four goals and six assists this season. Perron is a talented player and a former first-round pick, but he's struggled in recent seasons to recapture the 20-goal form he displayed with St. Louis early in his career.
With the entire Penguins team struggling offensively this season, the task ahead of Rutherford to create cap space and acquire a top end defensive talent is that much harder - they're now 26th in the league in goals for, 26th in power play percentage. Pulling from the team's pool of prospects likely provides little answer as well, considering it doesn't solve the dollars out part of the equation and also considering Derrick Pouliot, the No. 1 prospect in the Pens system not named Daniel Sprong, didn't play well in training camp and hasn't done enough since to warrant a call-up despite the injury to Maatta and the team's consistent defensive issues.
In the end, Rutherford's efforts to upgrade the Pittsburgh defense may never bear any fruit. The situation is a difficult one financially and the team has too often burned future assets in order to win now, only to see those moves provide little in the way of instant gratification.
But if there's one thing Rutherford can be thankful for, it's that he apparently still has the confidence of ownership, even as this season slips slowly away and fans begin to question just what the personnel department, along with the lineup, will look like in the years to come.
