Rutherford not actively trying to trade any of Kessel, Malkin, Hornqvist or Letang
NHL.com: Pittsburgh Penguins GM Jim Rutherford was on 93.7 The Fan radio yesterday talking about the Penguins and Phil Kessel.
“The biggest thing is from a team point of view, you can’t have the player controlling the trade because if you do, it’s not going to work out for the team, so at this point in time I view it that Phil will return with the team. I’m not actively pushing to trade him at this point. If somebody comes along with a deal that makes sense, we’ll take a look at it, just like most of the other players.”
Kessel has an eight-team trade list and had exercised his right to not want to go the Minnesota Wild.
The Penguins traded defenseman Olli Maatta over the weekend for Dominik Kahun and a pick, and they don’t plan on being finished making moves.
Rutherford said that he’s not looking, pushing, or feeling that he has to trade the likes of Evgeni Malkin, Patric Hornqvist and Kris Letang.
“I didn’t say I was going to actively push to trade the guys you just mentioned, but I didn’t say that I wouldn’t. The best example of all, people hear this over and over, is Gretzky was traded, you know, one of the greatest players of all time. Sometimes there’s certain packages (that) come along that you have to look at, and that’s why I kept that door open.”
Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Penguins GM Jim Rutherford on 93.7 The Fan on Evgeni Malkin, Patric Hornqvist, and Kris Letang.
“There’s been great players traded in this league,” he said. “If somebody comes along with a package that makes sense for the Penguins, we have to look at it. These are not, the guys that you mentioned, are not guys that I’m pushing to trade.”
Rutherford expects more changes to come.
The Olli Maatta trade may mean that Jack Johnson isn’t moved.
“We certainly had to make a move from a cap point of view. … We were getting ourselves to a point where we might have been in a little trouble,” he said. “It was going to be either Johnson or Maatta to open up the necessary cap space and open up the logjam at defense. And as it turned out, it ended up being Olli.”