Kovacevic: At last, the real reason Rutherford quit

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- It's been a little more than a year and a half since Jim Rutherford's sudden, stunning resignation as the Penguins' general manager, and the story somehow never surfaced anywhere as to how it happened.

Until now.

According to a team source with whom I spoke a week ago at the NHL Draft in Montreal, one I've known and trusted for many years, it was simple as this: Two weeks into the COVID-shortened 2021 regular season, Rutherford was set to make a move. He was rejected by David Morehouse, the team's president and CEO at the time. Rutherford was livid and, according to the source, "said some things that aren't the kind of things you can take back." Further talks between the two over the following 48 hours didn't settle anything, Rutherford informed Morehouse he'd be resigning, and all concerned agreed not to discuss the matter publicly.

Which neither of them, by the way, has done.

As for what the move might've been, the only specific thing I've ever been told from inside the organization was that it wasn't a Kris Letang trade. I've also heard, in general, that it wasn't a trade at all.

As for what specific words might've been spoken in the pivotal conversation, I've never heard a syllable. But I do know that, once it happened, both were eager to make the cleanest, least controversial exit possible under the odd circumstance and, to their credit, they've held to that even now that they're in very different places in life, with Rutherford now the Canucks' president in Vancouver and Morehouse having recently resigned.

Following Rutherford's departure, Morehouse and Mario Lemieux created a new position of president of hockey operations and, within that, chose Brian Burke. Lemieux and Ron Burkle, the owners at the time, wanted to avoid any future situation in which a non-hockey executive held authority over the hockey GM. In the current setting, Burke ranks above Ron Hextall, and he and new president Kevin Acklin are at relatively lateral positions atop the hierarchy.

If there's any ill will between any of the parties involved, including those still with the team, it's not at all evident. Rutherford visited the Penguins' table at the draft after making the Canucks' first-round pick on stage, spending a few fun-looking minutes with Letang and son Alex, as well as offering a friendly pat on the shoulder to Mike Sullivan, the head coach he hired. And Morehouse, to this day, expresses justifiable pride in having made the excellent hire of Rutherford before winning Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017.

So hey, it took a while to uncover, but there it is.

MORE PENGUINS

2. Not to be that guy, but the Penguins' annual development camp scrimmage I covered yesterday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex might've been the dreariest yet in terms of skill/speed. And take that from someone who's been to all of them since their inception. At the previous one last September, there was at least Valtteri Puustinen flashing smooth stickhandling, shooting and vision. This time, all that really stood out -- quite literally -- was the size of the new first-rounder Owen Pickering and sixth-rounders Nolan Collins and Luke Devlin.

Now, that's not an accident. Hextall and Sullivan both made references last week in Montreal to needing more size and more pushback on the back end, and Pickering and Collins project that way. A similar profile went into the free-agency signing of Jan Rutta. No one's spoken of this in a context where it can be solved with the snap of a finger, but it's seen as a start.  -- Kovacevic

3. Of course, Sullivan also spoke in Montreal of adding a more general physical presence along the walls, which had me wondering if the team might try to bring back Zach Aston-Reese, a legit favorite of both Sullivan and Hextall. But everyone I've asked so far about that shrugs.. -- Kovacevic

4. I'm told that, although Letang and Sidney Crosby both communicated with Evgeni Malkin in the final days before his contract was complete, neither was singularly influential in getting him to change his mind about hitting the NHL's open market. Rather, the most prominent influence came from right where anyone who knows Geno would realize it always would've: Anna Kasterova, his wife, as well as other family and friends.

Don't overthink this: Geno loves to be loved. And I don't say that in a bad way. He's got a lot of child-like qualities about him, and that might be his most endearing. He'd never be loved anywhere else the way he could in Pittsburgh.. -- Kovacevic

5. Don't confuse the length of some of these recent contracts as representing some elongation of the Core's tenure. Letang got the six-year term to soften the cap hit, and Malkin got the four-year term to get done, but trust me when I say that management views everything within the prism of the final three years of the Crosby contract. That doesn't mean Sid'll be done by then -- he's always left that open-ended -- but it does mean that's the team's view.. -- Kovacevic

6. Danton Heinen doesn't have any set salary demands, and I was told that any number floating around out there is simply "speculation" and "bad reporting." Still, his camp believed that he could get close to $4 million in arbitration had the Penguins qualified him. The Penguins opted to avoid the chance of arbitration with Heinen, but negotiations continued beyond that point and Heinen remains flexible on salary if the term is right for him. --Taylor Haase in Cranberry, Pa.

7. It should be obvious based on how quickly deals get announced after free agency opens, but teams absolutely speak to free agents before they're permitted to on July 13, and that was the case again this season. There's no real way to police it. -- Haase

8. The Penguins have way too many defensemen. One, if not more, will be traded, but don't expect one of them to be Brian Dumoulin. I was told management has concerns about his performance, especially now that he's coming back from another significant lower-body injury. What concerns them more is the lack of a viable partner for Letang in his absence. 

Dumoulin has one season remaining on his contract, and it appears the Penguins are going to ride it out. -- Danny Shirey in Cranberry, Pa.

9. Evan Rodrigues knew he'd be testing free agency before free agency opened on Wednesday. He also changed agencies in the days leading up to the free agency period, switching from Peter Fish of Global Hockey Consultants to Quebec-based Quartexx Hockey. -- Haase

10. It could be something or it could be nothing, but director of amateur scouting Nick Pryor was with Hextall in his office about an hour before he spoke to the media on Wednesday. Hextall had been on and off the phone for a bit and, presumably, he was working on Josh Archibald’s contract. Pryor, 31, is the son of assistant general manager Chris Pryor. Chris was Hextall’s right-hand man in the Flyers’ front office when he was their general manager. 

It’s a bit curious the director of amateur scouting had much of anything to do with the first day of free agency. This is purely speculative, but it seems Nick has a much larger role with the Penguins than his job title states. -- Shirey

11. The Penguins were surprised by Kasper Bjorkqvist's decision to sign in Finland for next season. Management believed he was someone who could compete for a spot on the NHL roster this coming season. Bjorkqvist, though, had a pretty good idea that he'd be signing in Finland before Wilkes-Barre's season even ended. The Penguins extending him a qualifying offer allows them to retain his North American rights in the event he ever does decide to return. -- Haase

12. Good to see Nailers coach Derek Army at development camp this week. He helped lead some on-ice sessions as well as off-ice work throughout the week. The Penguins haven't always had Wheeling's coach involved in these camps at all, but the front office is high on Army, and for good reason. He led Wheeling to a playoff berth this season for the first time since 2016, back when he was on the team as a player. Army is young (31), he could be someone who keeps moving up the coaching ranks over the years. -- Haase

PIRATES

13. Talking with Mitch Keller this week, one of the biggest benefits to throwing the sinker is it has made his slider better. That’s partially because of tunneling, but also because Keller has gotten a better understanding of how seam-shifted wake – or how the ball moves based on the spin of a pitch and the way the seams interact with the air – works. As a result, the slider is getting more movement than ever, something a National League analyst confirmed to me.

That analyst also shared that Keller’s changeup, once a show-me pitch he’d throw just a couple times a game, has become one of his best offerings. -- Alex Stumpf in Miami

14. Sounds like Bryan Reynolds was dealing with some sort of oblique/core muscle ailment for some time before hitting the injured list on Monday. Don’t know if it had any impact on his performance on the field, but it doesn’t seem like this was something that just popped up. -- Stumpf

15. It will be interesting to see what happens to Jason Delay once Tyler Heineman eventually returns (there is no timetable for that yet). Last week, he was prepped days in advance for one start against the Reds. Now, he’s taking a bigger part in game prep before starts. He has minor-league options, but the Pirates value good defensive catchers who have the intangibles with the position. He checks those boxes. -- Stumpf

16. These next roughly three weeks are going to have far fewer rookies on the roster than we saw in May and June. The Pirates are going to be sellers at the deadline and they want to show off their veterans. I would expect a shift back to rookies in August. -- Stumpf

17. I’d keep an eye out for the Pirates going under-slot with their first pick to spread more money around to other rounds like they did last year. They have the fourth-largest bonus pool of any team this year, and while it’s unlikely they could get as many high-level draft prospects in later rounds, they could get another. It’s very likely the Pirates will target pitching at some point on day two, which would be a logical place to spend over-slot dollars. -- Stumpf

18. Regardless of what direction the Pirates may go with the No. 4 pick, we can rule out some prospects that won't be there by process of elimination. One source from my days in Texas told me the Rangers "like" Elijah Green at third overall. This would go against their recent trend of selecting college players such as Josh Jung, Justin Foscue and Jack Leiter in the first round of the previous three drafts. 

In turn, Cal Poly's Brooks Lee makes much more sense to me. Players with a strong hit tool have been a priority for the Rangers as they've rebuilt their farm system, and Lee fits the mold perfectly. However, this same source told me prior to last year's draft that Leiter was far and away at the top of their board. So, there is a distinct possibility that Green -- the son of former Steelers tight end Eric Green -- may not be available when the Pirates are on the clock Sunday night. -- Chris Halicke in Milwaukee

19. When the first SABR Defensive Index numbers were released on June 19, Ke'Bryan Hayes topped all major league players with a 7.7 SDI -- a whole point higher than Mookie Betts. I asked Hayes what he's done to take his defense to another level, and he went back to something one of his high school coaches taught him: "You've gotta be extraordinary at the ordinary." Hayes is focused on making the routine play 100 percent of the time, though what's routine for him is not routine for anyone else. -- Halicke

STEELERS

20. Le'Veon Bell's predictably unpredictable retirement announcement on Instagram included his first publicly expressed regret over how his holdout in 2018 alienated teammates, cost him a ton of money and, for the most part, killed the trajectory of a Canton-candidacy career.

But yeah, other than that, slick move.

I'll always fault his agent, Adisa Bakari, for ... wow, everything that was bungled there. Not least of which was that the guy wasn't even equipped with basic NFL labor knowledge that could've helped his client both stay here and get richer:

Ultimately, though, it was Bell who blew it. Every athlete has the power to hire and fire an agent and, as the Dodgers' Freddie Freeman found out in recent months, some agents are way better than others at their jobs. -- Kovacevic

21. This is the deadest of dead periods throughout the NFL calendar, and it's reflected in headlines everywhere. Or the lack of them. It's kind of an unspoken thing, even, that everyone should take vacation now before camps open. Executives do it. Coaches do it. Agents do it, too. Only the players keep training, if only because they can't afford not to.

As such, our Dale Lolley's on vacation, too. All the way out in Hawaii, no doubt sipping on a martini and laughing at whoever was forced to fill out the football section of Friday Insider this week.

He'll be back for the next one. -- Kovacevic