Assessing the 2014-15 Pittsburgh Penguins: The Management

Assessing the 2014-15 Pittsburgh Penguins: The Management

This season was the biggest in a while for the  Penguins and going into it they had just changed their General Manager and Coach. Mike Johnston was a coach plucked from the junior Western Hockey League and had no top league experience but the hierarchy put faith in him. On the other side Jim Rutherford is one of the most experienced people in the league having played a large number of NHL games and been involved heavily with the Carolina Hurricanes recently through their Stanley Cup run.

Rutherford made his mark early in the season when he traded at the draft for Nick Spaling and Patric Hornqvist from Nashville in exchange for James Neal. At the time it seemed like a rough deal but over time it has become a good move as it has enabled us to get depth. Hornqvist has also been a more productive player this season. In terms of signing free agents Rutherford was also generally quite good. Downie and Comeau were excellent, low cap signings. The Ehrhoff signing didn't work out as it was hoped but that was mostly due to injuries.

Over the course of the season I would say Rutherford had a generally positive result on the team with the only real downside being the Lovejoy for Despres trade. It is something that I still can't understand but it is what it is. Outside of that trade, he has done well strengthening both the top and bottom six. It would be nice to have more picks in the draft but that is a legacy mostly of the previous regime.

The biggest mark against the Penguins this season was their cap management. In the past Jason Botterill was the cap cruncher and he was a great asset to have as he seemed to be able to squeeze every dollar out of the cap. He is still at the club but this season the Penguins encountered problems which meant that near the end of the regular season they had to dress four or five defence in some games.

This is something that has lingered from the Ray Shero era as well with one or two signings which, in hindsight, now look terrible. Those being the Scuderi and Kunitz cap hits. The Penguins will need to address this issue in the off-season but luckily they have a fair chunk of cap space coming thanks to a large number of their players up for free agency.

In terms of coaching, I think Johnston has done well considering the injuries the Penguins faced throughout the season. Also, for his first season as a professional coach, he hasn't done terribly. 98 points is nothing to be disappointed about. The style of hockey wasn't that great though. The Penguins needed a more defensive and structured coach but the offensive production appears to have suffered. Evident in Crosby and Malkin.

Johnston had some issues though, mostly his use of line matching which seemed to be completely random. He also favoured Craig Adams for three quarters of the season. Chris Kunitz seemed immune to being dropped to the third line, where he really belonged after strings of poor performances. His composition of special teams was also an issue which saw an impotent power play.

All in all. I think the management did okay.  Not great but they could easily do better. The things that need fixing can be fixed over the summer. It remains to be seen whether they're aware of what is needed or if they maintain the status quo.