On the Pittsburgh Penguins …
- Craig Custance of ESPN: Penguins GM Jim Rutherford is aggressively looking to make some moves before the deadline. He’s looking to improve their blueline, with Kris Russell an option. He’d have no trouble with that if he’d move goalie Matt Murray, but he won’t. Multiple teams have asked about Murray and have been shot down.
- Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Sergei Plotnikov has been a healthy scratch for 19 consecutive games and his agent has said the Penguins have been trying to trade him.
“Sergei wants to play in the NHL as evidenced by the amount of money he paid to be excused from the last year of his KHL contact,” agent Mike Liut said Friday via e-mail. “He understands that this will not happen in Pittsburgh and the Penguins have been attempting to trade Sergei, albeit, a difficult task when a player is a healthy scratch for two months. If a trade is not available, he will have no choice but to return to Russia.”
GM Jim Rutherford said that Plotnikov suggested that he wanted to return to the KHL, something that didn’t sit well with the coaching staff.
“In Plotnikov’s case, he started off a little bit feeling his way and then I thought he had a pretty good run for about five weeks,” Rutherford said in a radio interview with 93.7 The Fan. “But there came a point in time where he suggested he wanted to go back to Russia. That didn’t go over too well with the coach because he wants people here that are all in, they want to be here at all costs. That hurt him a little bit with the coach.”
- Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune: GM Jim Rutherford is looking for a defenseman.
“With the prices of top-four guys, which there are very few available, it’s not necessarily going to be a top-four guy,” Rutherford said. “It may be a guy that’s a depth guy. It may be a guy that can play in our top six. But we would like to add a defenseman prior to the deadline.”
The Penguins have room to add about $2 million to their payroll at the deadline. They don’t want to move any of their top three prospects – Matt Murray, Daniel Sprong or Derrick Pouliot. They’d also prefer to keep their extra second round pick from the Canucks.
Kris Russell could be one option for them. TSN reported that they have interest in Justin Schultz. The Canucks are shopping Matt Bartowski, who is from the area.