Friday Insider: Is Nutting done with big firings? ☕ taken at PPG Paints Arena (Courtesy of Point Park University)

MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

This will sound nuts, but at least hear it out.

So, Bob Nutting fired Clint Hurdle this past Sunday. Or, as the press release disingenuously worded it, the Pirates and their manager "parted ways." And minutes after that release came another, this one attributed to Nutting, making clear his front office would remain intact by saying, "I strongly believe that Neal Huntington and the leadership team that he has assembled are the right people to continue to lead our baseball operations department."

This was, of course, was enthusiastically received by the public at large. And by the Mayor of Pittsburgh, who wrote to this site that he was "not happy" with the Pirates but that they "have the right to fail" if they so choose.

Ow.

Now, after all that, what if I told you that all of this -- I mean absolutely all of it -- remains in a state of flux and that, in fact, Nutting's nowhere near done?

That's been the unmistakable drumbeat from within 115 Federal over the past few days, that Nutting acted on Hurdle when he did out of respect to giving the manager a chance to bid his players farewell. (Which he did, by the way, with an emotional clubhouse meeting that morning.) And further, there remain major changes to be made. Meaning well above the obvious firings of Ray Searage, Tom Prince and potentially others on the coaching staff. Meaning no one's off limits.

I know, right?

On one hand, it makes zero sense. On more careful reflection, it makes some.

For one, my goodness, a change is needed. If Nutting hadn't realized that previously, he certainly does after all that went so terribly awry in 2019.

For another, as I've been writing for months, Nutting is beyond-belief patient with such matters. He'd take a month to determine what he should do the next day.

I don't know more than that. I don't know who's involved. I don't know how they'd leave, whether by being fired or resigning or accepting other posts elsewhere. But I do know that it's not done. Not yet.

MORE PIRATES

• I can't imagine how much more obvious it can be that Jeff Banister will be the manager. I've been writing it for months here in Insider, and I wrote it in the column immediately after Hurdle was fired. There's no suspense here. -- DK

• Of the rest of the coaches, now in flux, those with the best chance to stay on a new staff are hitting coaches Rick Eckstein and Jacob Cruz. The players swear by them, and their voices will be heard on this. -- DK

• How did Searage fall from the pitching-whisperer grace of 2013-15 to what happened over the past four years? All I hear consistently, with all due respect to Searage and his own contributions, is that Jim Benedict had an awful lot to do with those teams and how they were coached up at all levels of the organization. Including Pittsburgh. He was a trusted second set of eyes. -- DK

PENGUINS

• The Penguins had one of the NHL's most productive power plays last season, and it should be every bit as dangerous in 2019-20. However, one area in which it almost certainly will improve -- if only because it's almost impossible to get worse -- is when the Penguins have a five-on-three advantage. They had seven of those last season, spanning a total of six minutes, 37 seconds, and failed to score even once. "Hopefully, that changes this year," said left winger Jake Guentzel, who figures to be at least a part-time member of the No. 1 unit. The way he sees it, the keys to capitalizing on a two-man advantage are pretty basic. "You have to move the puck, and have some movement (by players) out there," he said. "You don't want to get (stagnant). If you can get shots from the point and open up things that way, it gets you more opportunities." Sidney Crosby suggested that the key is to not over-pass the puck and, in the process, pass up quality shots. "You're going to get a look, 5-on-3," he said. "Sometimes, it's not necessarily what you draw up. It's just a matter of executing what's given to you. You're going to get your chances. So when you get your looks, put it in the net. Last year, I'm sure we had some really good looks. You can look at a lot of things, but it comes down to putting the puck in the net when you get a good look or you get a good seam to shoot it." -- Dave Molinari

Bill Guerin has made it through his first training camp as general manager in Minnesota and still hasn't plucked any of his former co-workers away from the Penguins. While it's still entirely possible he'll try to hire a few people, particularly scouts, from his old club, what will be more interesting is whether Guerin tries to exploit his knowledge of the Penguins' organizational depth chart to improve that of the Wild. One prospect who always has intrigued Guerin is center Nikita Pavlychev, who is about to begin his senior season at Penn State. Pavlychev a seventh-round draft choice in 2015, is 6 foot 7, 225 pounds and has shown real potential to develop into a shutdown center as a pro, but also showed a scoring touch last season, when he put up 14 goals and 15 assists in 39 games. There's no indication the Penguins are interested in relinquishing his rights, but it won't be a surprise if Guerin makes an effort to acquire him. -- Molinari

• The latest trend among players with a lot of leverage in contract talks is to get the bulk of their money in signing bonuses, rather than salary. Mitch Marner, for example, recently accepted a six-year offer from the Maple Leafs that will pay him $60,958,000 in signing bonuses, but a total of just $4.4 million in salary. Structuring a deal that way provides a hedge against losing significant money if the NHL goes through a work stoppage, which has happened several times during the past couple of decades. Jim Rutherford, however, said that is not a route he will go down unless there is no option. "Each individual team has to make up their own mind as to what they want to do and how they structure contracts, and be consistent with it," he said. "My preference is not to do the signing bonuses. When you're dealing with unrestricted (free agents) and you're competing with other teams, you may get forced to do that, but my preference is not to." Rutherford, by the way, also said the labor peace assured by the NHL Players Association's recent decision to not reopen the collective bargaining agreement after next season -- which means the deal will remain in effect through 2021-22 -- will not have an impact on his approach to contract negotiations, such as increasing the number of years he would be willing to offer a particular player. -- Molinari

STEELERS

• There are web sites that specialize in trade rumors during the season for pro hockey, baseball and basketball. Football? Not so much. Maybe that should change. As we've seen with the Steelers already this season, in-season trades are becoming more common in the NFL than ever before. And most of the time, players don't see it coming. Take the example of tight end Nick Vannett, whom the Steelers traded for last week with the Seahawks. This wasn't the same case as when the Steelers had traded for Minkah Fitzpatrick the week before. Fitzpatrick had asked the Dolphins for a trade. Vannett had been in Seattle for three years and thought he would at least finish the season there. "It kind of catches you off guard a little bit," Vannett told me. "It's not anything they can prepare you for. When you get the phone call, you find out right then and there. Next thing you know, you've got to pack up and move on to the next city. That's exactly what happened with me. I got the phone call and I had six hours to catch a flight to get out here. I had to get everything I'd need for the next couple of weeks." It can be pretty unsettling, especially in a sport as complex as football, where teams run plays and schemes that are completely different from each other. Each team also has its own verbiage. But Vannett settled in quickly. "At first, I was worried about everything. I had all of my stuff. I was going to a new city. I didn't know how it was going to be," he told me. "You just don't know what to expect. But I came to a great situation. I love it here. Maybe the trade was a blessing. I came to a great opportunity. I knew a lot of guys on the team." -- Dale Lolley at Rooney Complex

Mike Tomlin and approximately everyone else watching weren't the only ones surprised when Al Riveron did not overturn an offensive pass interference penalty on Johnny Holton in Monday night's 27-3 win over the Bengals. That apparently included the official who initially called the penalty. "I talked to an official during the game, towards the fourth quarter, he told me the referee that threw the flag wishes he never threw it," Holton said. "He was hoping New York would overturn it." That obviously didn't happen and Holton was penalized for "pushing off" on cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick. "I was surprised. I thought they were going to overturn it for sure," Holton told me. "I don’t know what to say about that call. I just wish they hadn’t called it on me. It was a good play by me and the corner. We weren’t pushing each other or anything. We were both going for the ball." -- Lolley

• Much is made about Tomlin's record on replay reviews. And he has now been denied on 11-straight challenges. Critics often point to that as a possible shortcoming. But prior to missing on those last 11 challenges, Tomlin was 31 of 60 on challenges in his career. So what happened? Tomlin has not won a challenge since Riveron took over from Dean Blandino as the NFL's Vice President of Officiating for the 2017 season. Maybe that's a coincidence. Who, other than Riveron, knows? But we do know that Tomlin went from winning just over 50 percent of his challenges -- which is slightly above league average -- to not getting a single one in the past three seasons. -- Lolley

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