Penguins New Look...So Far
More dominoes have fallen. Some in place and some out.
Jim Rutherford is now the Penguins General Manager and Dan Bylsma is looking for another job, all in the span of about 20 minutes. This all occurred Friday, stemming from a press conference at 1:00 P.M. to announce the new look Penguins, from an upper management standpoint.
First off, the addition of Rutherford does not please me in any way. Call me crazy, but I was hoping for the highly rumored NBC Sports analyst Pierre McGuire. Rutherford has had a better track record in the past in terms of drafting, but as far as free agency or trade acquisitions goes, I can't really recall any big splashes he has made. He signed sniper Alexander Semin to a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal, knowing how streaky of a scorer the Russian winger can be. Arguably my two favorite moves Rutherford made during his tenure with the Carolina Hurricanes was the signing of wingers Chad Larose and Nathan Gerbe. Both wingers bring speed, grit, toughness and tenacity with them along with a minor scoring touch.
Obviously, being so early on in the Penguins off season and not even technically in that timetable, a lot of red flags and concerns are raised about Jim Rutherford and how he'll be different from Ray Shero, or if he will be at all.
Assisting Rutherford will be Jason Botterill as the Associate General Manager and Tom Fitzgerald and Bill Guerin as Assistant General Managers. The familiarity within the organization for all three allows the Penguins to maintain a majority of their team identity, while the addition of Rutherford allows slight variations, ie toughness, grit, character.
On to Bylsma, who was relieved of his duties during the same press conference. Bylsma is the all-time winningest coach in Pittsburgh Penguins history, but his less than stellar 43-35 playoff record was his ultimate downfall. Bylsma is a skilled coach who will no doubt find a job very easily and dare I say, very quickly, however his lack of playoff success was the key component in his firing. Coaching through injury riddled teams and posting the regular season records he did are impressive feats that should draw the eyes of the Hurricanes, Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks.
I respect Dan Bylsma and what he brought to Pittsburgh and to be completely honest, he did not deserve such a fate. Unfortunately when a team as talented as the Penguins do not win as regularly as they should in the playoffs, it is much easier to get rid of one coach than it is 20 players. I will always cheer for whatever team Disco Dan finds himself behind the bench of in the very near future.
Rumors have circulated that if the Detroit Redwings head coach Mike Babcock were to become available that the Penguins would aggressively pursue his services and/or he would not hesitate one moment to come to Pittsburgh to coach. Babcock is arguably the best coach in the past 10 years, maybe longer. If he were to make his way to the Burgh, the silly, nonsensical plays the Penguins had been making the past five years would be cut out of the playbook in about three hours. Babcock would be the shot in the arm that this club desperately needs.
Other rumored coaches are John Stevens, Rick Tocchet, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins head coach, John Hynes.
As added in the article I wrote about Ray Shero being fired, I still expect a lot more changes for the Penguins in the next few weeks. Slowly but surely the changes are being made. The biggest thing now is how they translate in this upcoming season.
Jim Rutherford is now the Penguins General Manager and Dan Bylsma is looking for another job, all in the span of about 20 minutes. This all occurred Friday, stemming from a press conference at 1:00 P.M. to announce the new look Penguins, from an upper management standpoint.
First off, the addition of Rutherford does not please me in any way. Call me crazy, but I was hoping for the highly rumored NBC Sports analyst Pierre McGuire. Rutherford has had a better track record in the past in terms of drafting, but as far as free agency or trade acquisitions goes, I can't really recall any big splashes he has made. He signed sniper Alexander Semin to a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal, knowing how streaky of a scorer the Russian winger can be. Arguably my two favorite moves Rutherford made during his tenure with the Carolina Hurricanes was the signing of wingers Chad Larose and Nathan Gerbe. Both wingers bring speed, grit, toughness and tenacity with them along with a minor scoring touch.
Obviously, being so early on in the Penguins off season and not even technically in that timetable, a lot of red flags and concerns are raised about Jim Rutherford and how he'll be different from Ray Shero, or if he will be at all.
Assisting Rutherford will be Jason Botterill as the Associate General Manager and Tom Fitzgerald and Bill Guerin as Assistant General Managers. The familiarity within the organization for all three allows the Penguins to maintain a majority of their team identity, while the addition of Rutherford allows slight variations, ie toughness, grit, character.
On to Bylsma, who was relieved of his duties during the same press conference. Bylsma is the all-time winningest coach in Pittsburgh Penguins history, but his less than stellar 43-35 playoff record was his ultimate downfall. Bylsma is a skilled coach who will no doubt find a job very easily and dare I say, very quickly, however his lack of playoff success was the key component in his firing. Coaching through injury riddled teams and posting the regular season records he did are impressive feats that should draw the eyes of the Hurricanes, Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks.
I respect Dan Bylsma and what he brought to Pittsburgh and to be completely honest, he did not deserve such a fate. Unfortunately when a team as talented as the Penguins do not win as regularly as they should in the playoffs, it is much easier to get rid of one coach than it is 20 players. I will always cheer for whatever team Disco Dan finds himself behind the bench of in the very near future.
Rumors have circulated that if the Detroit Redwings head coach Mike Babcock were to become available that the Penguins would aggressively pursue his services and/or he would not hesitate one moment to come to Pittsburgh to coach. Babcock is arguably the best coach in the past 10 years, maybe longer. If he were to make his way to the Burgh, the silly, nonsensical plays the Penguins had been making the past five years would be cut out of the playbook in about three hours. Babcock would be the shot in the arm that this club desperately needs.
Other rumored coaches are John Stevens, Rick Tocchet, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins head coach, John Hynes.
As added in the article I wrote about Ray Shero being fired, I still expect a lot more changes for the Penguins in the next few weeks. Slowly but surely the changes are being made. The biggest thing now is how they translate in this upcoming season.