Over the five NHL trade deadlines that Jim Rutherford has presided over as Pittsburgh Penguins general manager, he’s acquired eight players who played their first post-trade games with the team after the deadline.

One remains.

But that doesn’t mean by any means that none of the deals were beneficial to the Penguins. After all, those eight combined to win seven Stanley Cup rings with the team in 2016 and/or 2017. Two of the seven who aren’t playing for the Penguins anymore have retired, one was part of two deadline deals (coming and going, three years apart) and another was part of a separate in-season trade that netted the Penguins one of their current more versatile forwards.

Late Wednesday night in Los Angeles, forwards Patrick Marleau, Conor Sheary and Evan Rodrigues are expected to play in their first games for the Penguins since Rutherford traded for them Monday (albeit Sheary played for the Penguins in the past). How history will judge their acquisitions (Rutherford submitted a conditional third-round pick and forward Dominik Kahun as compensation) will be determined over the coming months and years.

A look back at Penguins debuts for other Jim Rutherford trade-deadline acquisitions https://t.co/vguxGEfMbI

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) February 25, 2020

Here are how players the Penguins netted at the five prior deadlines worked out:

2015

Ian Cole

A former first-round pick, Cole was 26 and something of an underwhelming-but-OK bottom-pair defenseman at the time Rutherford traded for him by sending Robert Bortuzzo and a seventh-round pick to the St. Louis Blues. He would end up playing every game for the Penguins as part of two Stanley Cup runs, a fact that by definition makes Cole a success.

Cole played about 18 minutes per game for the Penguins, and his plus/minus in addition to more advanced metrics were just good enough on a team in which others could do the heavy-lifting. But by his fourth season with the Penguins, Cole had slid down the depth chart and into something of Mike Sullivan’s doghouse. In the lead-up to the 2018 trade deadline, he was part of what was shipped out for the Penguins to grab what was thought to be one of the league-wide prizes on the market: Derick Brassard.

Cole would wind up with the Columbus Blue Jackets, where he finished out the 2018-19 season before signing with the Colorado Avalanche where he’s become part of a defense corps for one of the Western Conference’s best teams.

Ben Lovejoy

Like Sheary this year, Lovejoy in 2015 was a former Penguins player who was brought back. Lovejoy had just turned 31 when Rutherford sent Simon Despres to the Anaheim Ducks to get him. It was a move that at the time had many Penguins fans scratching their heads because Despres was a former first-round pick thought to have high-upside potential while Lovejoy had previously shown to be a depth NHL defenseman.

Like Cole, though, Lovejoy would appear in every playoff game during the Penguins’ run to the 2016 Stanley Cup. He was the lone significant departure off that team — signing a three-year contract with the New Jersey Devils. Lovejoy was dealt to the Dallas Stars at last year’s deadline and announced his retirement after their run to the Western Conference semifinals.

PensTV was there as Justin Schultz took the ice as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins.https://t.co/K25wUTAdNS

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 2, 2016

2016

Justin Schultz

The lone past deadline pick-up still on the Penguins’ roster, Schultz’s acquisition was among Rutherford’s more shrewd moves overall. Always considered a gifted, puck-moving right-handed defenseman, Schultz became a fan flashpoint for what was going wrong with the Oilers from 2012-16, enough so that Edmonton was willing to give up on him at age 25 in exchange for a third-round pick.

But Schultz gradually established himself with the Penguins, part of a defense corps that claimed the Stanley Cup twice. In 2017, in particular, with Kris Letang out for the season Schultz became the Penguins’ power-play QB and became a 20-minutes-per-game presence while finishing fifth on the team in postseason points (13 in 21 games).

He’d sign, first, a one-year extension and then a three-year deal with the Penguins. But that expires this summer, and Schultz is having his worst season in Pittsburgh after being injured much of last season. It’s almost assured his time with the Penguins is coming to an end — but that doesn’t mean he didn’t bring great value over five seasons.

Da strahlt Mark Streit. Der «Besuch» des Stanley-Cup-Pokals in Bern bedeutet dem #NHL-Verteidiger viel. #srfhockey pic.twitter.com/EjWEqZUQDV

— SRF Sport (@srfsport) August 2, 2017

2017

Mark Streit

Rutherford brought in Streit because he wanted to assure depth for his injury-riddled blue line down the stretch and during the playoffs. Streit, 39 at the time, provided just that, appearing in 19 regular-season games and three postseason contests — enough that the Penguins petitioned to have his name inscribed onto the Stanley Cup.

Streit would play just two more NHL games (for Montreal in Oct. 2018). But by then, he’d served his purpose. Typically, getting 22 games of service in exchange for a fourth-round pick isn’t looked upon too fondly — but when it comes with the Cup, the Penguins will gladly take it.

Frank Corrado

If Streit was depth, Corrado was deep depth. He played in just seven games for the Penguins over two seasons (none in the playoffs). But Corrado was brought in from Toronto in a deal that in part was meant to shed Eric Fehr’s salary, so anything he provided would have been a bonus.

McCann would make Penguins fans forget Derick Brassard except that Brassard did that himself months ago.

— Eric Hagman (@esh714) March 24, 2019

2018

Derick Brassard

In the Pittsburgh pro sports 2010s retrospective, Brassard takes his place next to the likes of Ladarius Green and Chris Archer as acquisitions that flopped after their arrival was met with great fanfare.

Getting Brassard from the Ottawa Senators in the days leading up to the deadline was considered a coup for Rutherford because “Big Game Brass” was both considered the jewel of that season’s trade market and because he would fulfill a much-needed niche on the Penguins’ roster. Finally, the team had gotten its Jordan Staal back to complement Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

Um, no. Brassard never fit in with the Penguins, and frankly didn’t seem as if he wanted to. Brassard indicated he’d rather be in a top-six role than centering a “third line” and openly lamented his lack of power-play time. He’d tally 23 points in 54 regular-season games and four points in 12 playoff games for the Penguins, being a minus player who had some of the worst possession metrics on the team over his 11 months in Pittsburgh.

But this story has a happier ending than could be expected after the Penguins submitted three draft picks, Cole, bruising wing Ryan Reaves and a top goalie prospect in Filip Gustavsson in the complicated three-team transaction for Brassard. In February 2019, Rutherford found a taker for Brassard and fellow disappointing bottom-six center Riley Sheahan: Florida took on both in exchange for Jared McCann and Nick Bjugstad. Though he has slumped badly in recent weeks, McCann largely has been a revelation.

Josh Jooris

Rutherford traded for Jooris to add a body in case it was needed along the bottom six. He played in nine games for the Penguins (none in the playoffs) and is now playing in Switzerland.

And in the least surprising #Canucks news of the day, Erik Gudbranson now has the worst +/- in the entire league (ranking 855th among all skaters at -27) pic.twitter.com/TTDUeERcUs

— BoestMode (@BoestMode) February 24, 2019

2019

Erik Gudbranson

In the post-Stanley Cup tenure of Rutherford with the Penguins — after he’d built up capital enough to secure trust among the fanbase — perhaps the move that drew the most criticism was the trade for Gudbranson from the Vancouver Canucks for Tanner Pearson (himself an acquisition that didn’t work out).

Yes, Gudbranson’s plus/minus and possession metrics were awful with Vancouver, and his $4 million cap hit threatened to drag the Penguins down until 2021.

In the end, though, the alarmists (as they so often are) were wrong. Gudbranson wasn’t garnering any Norris Trophy consideration, and no, he didn’t help the Penguins win a Stanley Cup (or even a single playoff game, for that matter). But he was much better playing with the talented Penguins than he was in Vancouver, and he helped stabilize what was a fragile ‘D’ corps late last season.

Best of all, even when he became expendable in the lineup early this season, Rutherford had little trouble dumping his contract (to Anaheim in an October trade). So, again, no harm, no foul.

Keep up with the Pittsburgh Penguins all season long.

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