Why did the Penguins hire Brian Burke?

The final 10 months of Jim Rutherford’s tenure as Penguins general manager were exhausting.

With covid-19 crippling seemingly every walk of life on the globe, the NHL adjusted much of its business not only to stage an unprecedented postseason tournament in August and September to complete the 2019-20 season but to start the 2020-21 campaign as well.

That meant pages and pages of the league’s complex collective bargaining agreement with the NHLPA had to be rewritten, and the rules that dictate the salary cap were wildly different.

Rutherford had to navigate uncharted waters. And he did so largely without a navigator. Or at least as many navigators as he once had.

When Rutherford took over as general manager in June of 2014, he retained and elevated several of former general manager Ray Shero’s lieutenants — Jason Botterill, Tom Fitzgerald and Bill Guerin — to associate or assistant general manager roles. Rutherford also brought on a long-time ally, Jason Karmanos, installing him as vice president of hockey operations.

Botterill dealt with the granular details of the CBA and the salary cap, Fitzgerald and Guerin handled player evaluations at the amateur and professional levels and Karmanos introduced a greater emphasis on analytics to the organization.

And Rutherford oversaw the entire operation in his early years as general manager.

But eventually, most of those lieutenants left, becoming general managers of other NHL teams. And their talents largely never were replaced.

That left Rutherford and Karmanos — until he was fired abruptly from his post as assistant general manager this past October — to steer the ship. Rutherford had to get acclimated with new innovations such as taxi squads and quarantine protocols while trying to get Mark Jankowski in under his salary cap mostly by himself.

While assistant general manager Patrik Allvin had been recently promoted to that role and Trevor Daley was brought on into an advisory position, they still were very much learning their new gigs and were limited in what they could offer in assisting Rutherford.

When Rutherford surprisingly resigned Jan. 27, he sounded like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

“I’m going to take this time to just unwind and get rid of the stress and all those things that go with the job,” Rutherford said by phone. “Enjoy my family and have some good family time.”

All of 13 days later, the Penguins hired two men to replace many of the duties Rutherford largely bore alone for 10 months.

On Tuesday, Ron Hextall was installed as Rutherford’s full-time replacement, and long-time NHL executive Brian Burke was brought into the newly created president of hockey operations position. Before Tuesday, the Penguins never had such a role in their nearly 54 years of existence.

Without solicitation, Hextall explained the importance of having someone in that seat as it related to his vocation.

“A general manager’s job nowadays is an enormous undertaking and to have other people take you and guide you and work with you, (Burke) and I are going to be a team,” Hextall said via video conference Tuesday. “We’re going to work together. We’re going to work hard. Philosophically, we’ve talked (and) we’re on the same page. He’s going to take things off my plate, and I’m going to take things off of his plate.”

Hextall is hardly a newcomer to this type of role. He spent several years in an assistant general manager role with the Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers before becoming general manager of the Flyers for parts of five seasons in the 2010s.

He has plenty of experience in negotiating contracts and trading third-round draft picks for second-round draft picks. And he was largely successful in those duties as he helped turn the Kings to Stanley Cup champions in 2012 and ‘14, and the Flyers are currently one of the NHL’s best teams thanks to a roster he largely crafted.

But being a general manager goes well beyond just finding the best 20 players to dress on a nightly basis.

A lot of those duties will fall to Burke, who has nearly 35 years of practical experience in the NHL through various roles, ranging from general manager with several teams to a director of hockey operations role in the NHL’s office.

As team president and CEO David Morehouse explained Tuesday, the opportunity to bring on Burke and his wealth of experience prompted them to create the president of hockey operations role.

“I think it just falls into our philosophy of just getting the best talent that we can, whether it be on the ice or off the ice or on the business side. Like I said, once I found out (Burke) had an interest in coming here, I could get both Ron Hextall and Brian Burke on our team, then it’s a no brainer.

“It’s not so much the structure. It’s the people. We didn’t have our mind made up that we were going to have any kind of different structure when we started this search, but as we went through it and we had this opportunity, I think I would have been a fool not to take it. The structure has nothing to do with anything other than the talent that we have.”

One duty a general manager usually has is to speak regularly with the media. Rutherford met that requirement more than abundantly, as he usually joked he was willing to chat by phone “24/7.”

Hextall, by many accounts, is Rutherford’s opposite. While dealing with an admittedly carnivorous media environment in Philadelphia as general manager, Hextall was said to be limited in how often he spoke with reporters.

In contrast, Burke, a former player agent who has a law degree from Harvard, rarely has encountered a microphone he wasn’t willing to give a glib soundbite to.

One of the most quotable personalities in NHL history, Burke unleashed a bevy of quips during Tuesday’s virtual press conference.

• On missing out on the chance to draft Sidney Crosby during the NHL’s draft lottery in 2005 as general manager of the Anaheim Ducks:

“I just missed on Sidney Crosby. Well now I’ve got Sidney Crosby.”

• On his work as a commentator with Canadian broadcaster Sportsnet:

“I learned that I should smile more than I do. Everyone watching on TV was sending me notes while I was on the air, ‘Smile once in a while.’ “

• On his past criticisms of the Penguins’ salary cap issues:

“There’s a whole bunch of teams with extreme salary cap issues who haven’t won a bloody thing. At least in Pittsburgh … when Jimmy Rutherford goes to buy gas, he’s got two rings on.”

If the Penguins add any more Stanley Cup rings with their newly installed management team, it will take a lot of cohesion between a couple of head-strong individuals such as Hextall and Burke joining another bold personality in Mike Sullivan. And, by the way, they work for an ownership group that never has been shy about offering opinions on potential transactions such as blockbuster trades involving the likes of Marian Hossa or Patric Hornqvist.

It is a potentially volatile mix at a very uncertain time.

But unlike the previous 10 months, the Penguins won’t have any shortage of voices to help map out the franchise’s trajectory.