Although the Pittsburgh Penguins spent $100,075,000 — a figure that could rival the gross domestic product of a handful of sovereign states — in re-signing incumbent players on their roster this offseason, they weren’t terribly aggressive in the free agent market.
But they moved quickly to sign one newcomer when the NHL’s free agent signing period opened July 13 in adding defenseman Jan Rutta.
The Penguins signed the right-hander to a three-year contract that carries a salary cap $2.75 million after he had spent parts of the previous four seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning, helping that franchise win the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021 and get to the Final in 2022.
Management long had identified Rutta as a target in free agency.
“(General manager Ron Hextall) and his staff brought it to our coaching staff fairly early,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “My observation of every time we played Tampa was he was hard to play against. He just gets in the way, he defends well, he has a good stick. He has good size. He’s hard at the net front. He was just one of those guys that was hard to play against. That was our observation of playing against him for a few years when he was down in Tampa. We were hopeful that he would bring that to our team. To this point, that’s exactly what we’ve seen.”
Rutta got to see the Lightning as an opponent for the first time Saturday since departing as a free agent.
“It’s weird playing all those familiar faces, especially now in Game Two (of the regular season),” Rutta said Friday. “So it’s not that long. It will definitely be a lot of fun. Can’t wait to play them. It will be special, for sure.”
Rutta spent much of his time playing on the Lightning’s top pairing with Victor Hedman, a former winner of the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman.
“He played with one of the best defensemen in the league,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “And that’s that’s hard to do. Sometimes, you think, well it’s an easy thing. ‘Just put me with Hedman, and I’ll be great.’ No, that’s hard because … you have to learn to play with elite player, think like elite players and (Rutta) was really good with that. … That was the big thing for me was (Rutta) had the ability to play with the best (defenseman) in the league, and that was impressive.”
