Penguins’ GM Rutherford urgently seeking trade two weeks into season!

The Pittsburgh Penguins didn’t start the 2020-21 season off on the right foot and we all expect general manager Jim Rutherford to be ready to pull the trigger early on if his team show signs of struggle… It seems like that time has come. 

According to Darren Dreger, Rutherford is already looking to make a trade. His Penguins lost the first two games of the seasons against the Philadelphia Flyers and barely got the wins in their two following contests against the Washington Capitals, which they won in extra time. On top of that, the Penguins have sustained injuries on the back end, which isn’t helping their already struggling crew, as Marcus Pettersson and  Juuso Riikola have sustained injuries and Mike Matheson is already on their injured reserve. We all know how Rutherford isn’t afraid of making quick trades and Dreger explained on last night’s Insider Trading on TSN that we might be on the verge of a move in Pittsburgh. 

“He’s looking for a defenseman and part of that is through urgency and necessity and the fact he’s already experienced injuries to the Pittsburgh Penguins blue line. But you’re right, Jimmy Rutherford historically, traditionally, has always tried to get his shopping out of the way early. He’s in the market for the best available defenseman but, in reality, he knows that he’s going to have to settle for a third-pairing defenseman. He’s definitely in the market looking for some help.”

The Penguins’ biggest challenge will be to fit an upcoming trade under the cap.  Pittsburgh has roughly $1.9MM in cap room at the moment, according to CapFriendly, though it is set to drop as they just recalled Pierre-Olivier Joseph from their taxi squad to get to six healthy options on the roster for tonight’s game against the New York Rangers. 

We saw one defensive trade earlier this week when the Minnesota Wild acquired Ian Cole from the Colorado Avalanche in return for Greg Pateryn.  

Rutherford will also be looking to add a blue liner of his own before too long.