On the Pittsburgh Penguins …
Sam Werner of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Penguins GM Jim Rutherford said the two deals he made yesterday went “hand-in-hand”.
“I’m not sure that I would’ve made the deal that quick for Archibald if we weren’t getting a defenseman,” Rutherford said. “But we’re getting a former first-round pick that’s 6-foot-7, big guy, that has good hockey sense and can move the puck well.”
Rutherford added that he’d been watching Jame Oleksiak for a while.
The holiday roster freeze goes to December 28th. Rutherford plans on continuing to make deals.
“If we move a defenseman, that we don’t have to get a defenseman in return,” he said. “We don’t just get locked in that we have to get one position.”
Rutherford adds that some scoring depth down the middle is his top priority.
“Somebody that can produce, score a little bit more,” he said. “But there aren’t any of those guys sitting around at this point, and if there are, I’d be happy if somebody could point one out.”
Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: When the holiday roster freeze ends, the Penguins could look to move out a defenseman for some scoring depth up front.
The Penguins traded Josh Archibald as they didn’t see him getting a lot of playing time and looked to get a return as opposed to possibly losing on waivers for nothing.
“We want to have four balanced lines that the coach can roll out there, six capable defensemen and, of course, the goalies,” Rutherford said. “I think if you go back to the teams the last two years, what I just described is what we had. That will be the goal getting to the trade deadline.
“But right now, we’re in a fight to be a playoff team. We have to get to that point before we start worrying about Feb. 28.”