Rutherford gives his side of the nixed Letang trade rumours; the move he regrets making as Pens GM

It was definitely a surprise when Jim Rutherford resigned as general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins near the end of January. Rutherford has won two Stanley Cups as GM of the organization and appeared to still be in the good graces of the team's ownership. After he quit, there were plenty of rumours that Rutherford had been attempting to trade Kris Letang and was blocked from doing so by the ownership of the Pens, something Rutherford wasn't happy with and subsequently decided to resign. Now, in an interview on the Cam and Strick Podcast, Rutherford is putting those rumours to rest.

During the podcast, Rutherford was asked point blank if his decision to leave Pittsburgh had anything to do with attempting to trade Letang, or any other of the big names on the Penguins.

"Nope, not accurate," said Rutherford. "As a matter of fact I've said publicly a few times that - because you get to a point in a player's career where [you wonder] should you trade him and get something younger for them or not. But I actually took the position that because the core guys won Stanley Cups, three Stanely Cups, that [Sidney] Crosby, [Evgeni] Malkin and Letang should play their whole career in Pittsburgh."

That's when Rutherford revealed what one of his biggest regrets was as GM with the Penguins.

"And I wish I could say the same thing about [Marc-Andre] Fleury, but we got squeezed on the cap at an earlier time," he said. "But those four guys should have played their whole careers in Pittsburgh. But there's three of them still there. That's how I felt then and that's how I feel now."

Fleury willingly waived his no trade and no movement clauses to be left exposed by the Penguins in the 2017 Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft. Pittsburgh also traded their second round pick in the 2020 Entry Draft as an incentive for Vegas to select Fleury, in order for the team to be relieved of his nearly $6 million cap hit.

As for the axed trade rumours, while Rutherford denies that's what happened, there's still something here that no one is willing to talk about out in the open. Rutherford's contract expired at the end of this season. He could have left then instead of departing part way through the year. He also said just recently that he's ready to get back in the game with any team that is looking for a GM or, possibly, President of Hockey Operations, which seems odd given that he was not fired from Pittsburgh but left on his own accord.

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