It was a good summer for Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford.
Rutherford’s Penguins captured the Stanley Cup in June, knocking off the San Jose Sharks in six games. The 67-year-old Beeton, Ontario, native was named the NHL’s general manager of the year a couple weeks later.
Rutherford opened up on the processes that led to the Penguins winning the franchise’s fourth Stanley Cup in a piece for The Players’ Tribune. Here are some highlights from Rutherford’s piece titled “The Box.”
On Sidney Crosby handing the Cup off to Trevor Daley first:
A lot of people probably thought Trevor was the captain’s choice because he was a 32-year-old veteran who had sacrificed his body for the team and had just won his first Stanley Cup.
But there was a much more important reason. Trevor’s mother, Trudy, was watching on TV from her hospital bed in Toronto, where she was battling cancer.
Trevor’s mother had made him a promise, and he was holding up his end of the deal.
Earlier in the playoffs, Trevor had gotten the difficult news that his mother didn’t have much time left. He asked me if he could take a quick trip home to see her. Any time one of my players is struggling with a serious family issue, I give them time to deal with the situation — even if it means missing a game.
So Trevor went home to see his mother. When he returned to Pittsburgh a few days later, I asked him how she was doing. He told me what she had said to him right before he had to leave, and it gave me goosebumps.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll be here to watch you lift the Stanley Cup.”
On the summer 2015 acquistion of Phil Kessel:
It was always my understanding from my intel around the league that Phil was a good guy. If I have one defining management philosophy, it’s that I really believe in second chances. If a player is a good guy, and he’s got talent, and you give him a second chance, he’ll give you everything he’s got.
The Kessel decision ultimately came down to a simple fact about the NHL that never seems to change: It’s hard to score goals in this league. It’s just hard. But Phil was a guy who had scored them year after year. He had been in a fishbowl in Toronto and he still scored 30 every year. I felt if we gave him a second chance, he’d really thrive in Pittsburgh.
So Phil came into our locker room that fall and, after watching him for a few weeks, I filed a new note into my box:
Phil Kessel isn’t a good guy, after all. He’s a great guy.
On how he factors analytics into the decision-making process:
Analytics are a big emphasis for our hockey-operations team, and I have an excellent team that looks at players from every angle. But, as a decision maker, you need to know the context behind the numbers.
Why is this guy struggling?
What’s his personality?
What’s going on tactically on the ice?
What’s going on off the ice?
Read Jim Rutherford in The Players’ Tribune in its entirety here.