Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford finally got his man. After several weeks of handwringing over would he or wouldn’t he, Rutherford pulled the trigger on a six-player deal that brought in Toronto Maple Leafs star right-winger Phil Kessel on Wednesday.
“We worked on this deal with Toronto for over a month,” Rutherford said in press conference Wednesday afternoon. “It got a little legs on draft day, but it really heated up last night and we were able to complete the deal today.
With the Penguins sitting idly as the Buffalo Sabres added forward Ryan O’Reilly from the Colorado Avalanche during last Friday’s NHL Draft and the Columbus Blue Jackets snatched local winger Brandon Saad on Tuesday, things were coming to a head as free agency began at noon on Wednesday.
If the Penguins couldn’t make a deal for Kessel, Rutherford and his cadre of assistants would have been forced to look elsewhere to fulfil their top priority this offseason: a top-line winger.
“He was our number one target,” Rutherford said. “We set out his offseason to bring in some more skill on the wing and some more speed and we certainly covered that by adding Phil Kessel.”
With Kessel in the fold, the Penguins will now have three established top-six guys (Kessel, Perron and Hornqvist) to go along with elder statesmen Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis and youngsters Beau Bennett and Sergei Plotnikov, in what should be a deep group at wing.
“We’d also like to get some consistency of wingers for Geno and Sid,” Rutherford said. “I believe (Penguins head coach Mike Johnston) should be able to do that now.”
Even better for the Penguins, is that Rutherford was able to add to the top six without subtracting too heavily from the young defensive corps.
Scott Harrington, while a nice player, is not of the same ilk as Derrick Pouliot and Olli Maatta, and the Penguins will reap the benefits of having their two 2012 first-round picks for several years to come.
“I get asked about (the top young defensemen) a lot and it’s hard to find guys like Pouliot,” Rutherford said. “He’s a guy that, as he matures, is going to be an important part of our power play. He’s a guy that we didn’t want to let go.”
Rutherford’s still has work to do: the Penguins still need a fourth-line center and at least one more goaltender, but for one night at least, Rutherford can sleep easy knowing that his biggest task for the offseason has been completed.
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