Jim Rutherford's focus is simple: Get Penguins to Toronto healthy

Typically, Jim Rutherford’s work is done when his team is about to open a postseason.

After all, once the playoffs begin, there’s not much in the way of roster management. As a general manager, you just sit back and watch the squad you’ve fine-tuned over the previous 10 months compete for the Stanley Cup.

But nothing about this upcoming postseason is typical.

As a result, Rutherford is busier than usual as his team prepares for the NHL’s postseason tournament in August with all sorts of business.

For instance, how do you get a skate sharpener into Canada during a worldwide pandemic?

“I spend most of the day on the phone with people just going through things that some people would think are little things,” Rutherford said during a conference call with local reporters Saturday. “But we have to get it right because we have to take the risk out of everything. Even to the point of how we’re getting certain equipment to Toronto, who can take it, where it goes, do people have to quarantine when they get there. There’s so many details when we’re dealing with something like this.”

The Penguins are one of 24 teams scheduled to participate in the NHL’s postseason tournament the league and the players’ association formally announced Friday evening.

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the league has been on pause since March 12.

The Penguins will formally practice for the first time in more than four months Monday as they open a two-week training camp in advance of the tournament. This camp will serve as a chance to shake of some rink rust but also as an evaluation to see which of the 30 skaters — to say nothing of the unlimited goaltenders — the Penguins are permitted to bring with them to the the quarantined section of Toronto they hope to inhabit for several weeks.

Since early June, as permitted by the NHL, several Penguins players have been participating in voluntary sessions at their practice facility in Cranberry.

“Knowing our players the way that I do,” Rutherford said. “I think that our guys have prepared themselves pretty well for what’s ahead of them.”

Also announced on Friday was a four-year extension of the collective bargaining agreement between the the NHL and NHLPA, which will keep the salary cap at the current figure of $81.5 million for the 2020-21 season.

For a team such as the Penguins that typically spends to the upper limits of the cap each season, that is hardly ideal, particularly with some significant pending restricted free agents such as goaltenders Matt Murray, Tristan Jarry and forward Jared McCann potentially seeking lucrative long-term deals. Based on players on the NHL roster, the Penguins have $68,100,175 devoted to their 2020-21 salary cap already (according to Cap Friendly).

But Rutherford appears sated by finally having a budget he can work with after largely being limbo the past four months.

“We’re always in a position where we have to move things around, Rutherford said. “But we do have a little cap space here. We do have some decisions to make, none of which have been made. I’m sure as we go along in these games that we’ll have different opinions on different things as to how we sort the cap out. But the nice thing about the flat cap is that we know where it is now and where it’s going to go the next few years. It gives all the teams stability. We have a better idea of what we’re dealing with.

“We always have to let guys go and try to keep guys (who can) come in that can plug into certain areas. I don’t think this is anything new to us. We’re going to have to make those tough decisions.”

Ideally, Rutherford won’t have to make those decisions until the NHL’s offseason begins in October, as currently scheduled.

He has far more immediate concerns.

“For me right now, the most critical thing is getting these players through this next few weeks and getting them into the ‘bubble’ healthy,” Rutherford said. “That’s the priority right now.”

The biggest component of that is limiting the risk for his players potentially being exposed to the coronavirus beyond the one unidentified player who tested positive for this past spring.

Management has issued regular suggestions to avoid public places such in recent weeks.

“I’m sure they’re probably tired of the amount of times they’ve been told of the importance of staying away from any risky places,” Rutherford quipped. “With the numbers going up in Allegheny County and restaurants closing now, people from Allegheny County go to Butler and Beaver and other counties where maybe the players are going to be more. So we give them all that information and tell them it’s so critical. Because one little slip up … we know this thing spreads pretty quick, and our players are pretty conscious of that.”

Hockey players in general are renown for playing through broken bones, shattered teeth or the flu. But the Penguins — and the league in general — have made it a point of emphasis in stressing to players they can’t fight though this.

“Guys want to play through everything, especially come this point in time when it’s playoff time, Rutherford said. “But I think everybody recognizes the difference of playing with a pulled groin or a broken bone. It’s not something that’s contagious. And with (covid-19), it’s a whole different story. I don’t think any player wants to be the one responsible. Especially if he knows he that has a fever or he has some symptoms. He doesn’t want to be the person that spreads it through a team and affect the team.

“I would be very surprised if anybody tried to do that.”