First Call: Penguins GM Jim Rutherford talks trade interest, Kris Letang’s issues, Evgeni Malkin’s riskiness

“First Call” today is all Jim Rutherford, all the time.

The Penguins general manager had his first radio show of the year on 105.9 the X Wednesday. And the hyperbole meter was on high.

During the program, Rutherford:

• Called Jake Guentzel “the most underappreciated star player in the league”

• Referred to John Marino and Marcus Pettersson as a defense tandem that could be together in Pittsburgh “for 10-15 years”

• Said Tristan Jarry is “probably the best puck-handling goalie in the league”

• Described Teddy Blueger as “probably the Nick Bonino replacement”

• Declared Mike Sullivan the winner of the Jack Adams Award and said “it’s not even close”

He might want to be careful with that last statement. The last time a Pittsburgh coach was declared coach of the year this prematurely was… well, it was last month, and Mike Tomlin was 8-5.

But Rutherford might be onto something with a lot of those other statements.

Although, forget 10 to 15 years of Marino and Pettersson together as a tandem. I’ll take four healthy months at this point.

And if Blueger really is the next Bonino, does that mean Zach Aston-Reese and Brandon Tanev are Phil Kessel and Carl Hagelin? I can see Tanev as Hagelin. But I think it’s safe to say Aston-Reese has a way to go before he becomes a 35-goal guy like Kessel.

Plus, that line would then require a name, like H-B-K. Because you aren’t allowed to be a steady line in Pittsburgh without some sort of catchy name that can go on a T-shirt.

Hmmm. Blueger/Aston-Reese/Tanev? B-AR-T. The “BART” line? Will Fox let the Pens market Bart Simpson wearing Penguins gear? Every time one of those guys scores, the Jumbotron can tell the opposing goalie to “eat my shorts.”

Hey, Bart has some hockey experience after all.

The most pressing matter is what Rutherford had to say about Guentzel. Not so much the “underappreciated” thing. Most of Pittsburgh would co-sign on that one.

It’s what he had to say regarding the notion of trading for another player to replace Guentzel while he is injured for the rest of the season.

Rutherford made it sound like his team has been playing well enough of late that he should feel inclined to swing a deal if one is available.

“I got calls from media people the next morning (after Guentzel’s injury Dec. 30) asking me what we were going to do,” Rutherford recalled. “I said, ‘Slow down. Give us a chance to think about this.’ But with where our team sits (tied for second in the Metro Division with 57 points) and how much we like our team, we are always going to be looking at where we can strengthen it for the playoffs.”

That sounds encouraging for those — myself included — who think Rutherford should make a move to offset Guentzel’s loss.

On some other topics:

• Evgeni Malkin — “Geno is such a great player. But there are some nights where he will play a more risky game than we would like from a team point of view. But he has worked hard to adjust his game a little bit, play the game the right way. And, for the most part, he has done a good job with that this year.”

• Kris Letang’s up-and-down first half of the season — ”There has been a little bit of inconsistency in his first half. That is something he is aware of and the coaches have talked to him. But he is an elite defenseman. He is a game changer. He has come off a couple games where he wasn’t quite himself. But he comes into Vegas and plays a great game for us. Very solid. Very few mistakes.”

Letang had two assists and 26 minutes on the ice against Vegas in a 4-3 win Tuesday.

• On the pending returns of Sidney Crosby, Nick Bjugstad and Justin Schultz — ”We wanted to start getting them into a routine. That’s why we brought them on the road (to Vegas, Colorado and Arizona). Probably Sid is the closest to coming back of the three guys. I’d like to think that within the next couple of weeks we’d get all of those guys back.”