SEATTLE -- It’s been a long time since a Pittsburgh franchise underwent a transformation at the top comparable to that of the Penguins over the past two years. In order, there was a new general manager in Ron Hextall, a newly created position of president of hockey operations for Brian Burke and, most seismic of all, new ownership with the Fenway Sports Group’s purchase.
And now, there’s a search for at least a new GM, possibly a new president of hockey ops.
A ton changed. A ton occurred. And the only resonating truth of all that, as in any such case, will be that no one will ever know everything about what went down. I’m hardly an exception.
But I do know it wasn’t this. I do know that Teddy Blueger didn't learn about his March 1 trade to the Golden Knights via social media, as The Athletic erroneously reported this week. And I know that because Blueger told that yesterday to our Taylor Haase, and he did so on the record.
Blueger had told precisely the same story to Las Vegas reporters upon his March 2 arrival into Sin City. It’s on video:
🎥 Blueger: I was just hoping I was going to a good spot and I'm really happy to be here. pic.twitter.com/h0BorlqHc6
— z - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) March 3, 2023
Which also means, naturally, that Sidney Crosby never spoke a syllable of the quote attributed to him in that segment of the story.
Rather than rifle through an already debunked report item by item, I’ll stick to my own longstanding policy — and, in turn, our company’s — to focus on our own work, so I’ll simply share what I’ve learned on this general subject, both over time and via contacts made in my direction over the past 36 hours.
I’ll first post a disclaimer, one I’ve shared before, that anytime our site references anonymous sources, they’re identified to the rest of our staff that covers that sport regularly. I'm no exception. I’ll let Haase and Danny Shirey know the name of every source I’m about to reference.
In no particular order, then:
• Ron Hextall was hired to be the Penguins’ GM with no preconditions about personnel decisions, large or small. That’s according to an individual directly involved in the hiring process, one who's never lied to me in a lifetime of knowing this individual. Neither Hextall nor any other candidate was told they’d have to keep the Core of Crosby, Evgeni Malkin or Kris Letang, and they also weren’t told they’d have to move one or more.
• There’d been some thought invested internally on Letang’s future in Pittsburgh but, by the time Hextall was hired, it was “too late” regarding Letang, per the source. (I don’t know what the latter means, but I’m sharing it all here for fullest context.) There’d been no such conversation regarding moving Malkin around the time Hextall was hired, which was when Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle were co-owners and David Morehouse the team president. Once more: Nothing about Malkin. Ever.
• Morehouse was never making hockey decisions. The M.O. with this group was that Mario and Burkle would talk to Jim Rutherford, and Morehouse would listen, piping up only when needed.
• Rutherford, for the record, also didn’t want to move Malkin or Letang. When both signed their extensions in 2022, well after his resignation and subsequent departure for Vancouver, Rutherford let people with the Penguins know he was happy they stayed. My source on that one was the recipient of one of those texts.
• None of Lemieux, Burkle or Morehouse wanted Malkin or Letang out. My sources on this one can be named: Burkle and Morehouse.
• To stress anew, moving Malkin and/or Letang was never some pre-condition to taking the GM job that ultimately went to Hextall, and there couldn’t have been anyone turning down any such pre-condition since, one, it didn’t exist and, two, because Rutherford resigned so abruptly in mid-season, the list of candidates was as short as the timespan in which the hire was made. And in that span, the one candidate who’d been a main target for the Penguins — Chris Drury of the Rangers — never even got the chance to communicate with the Penguins’ management since their counterparts in New York denied their request to speak with him. Source: Quite literally the only individual who could’ve known any of what I just typed, yet one who wasn't contacted at all for the aforementioned report even though he played a prominent role in the narrative displayed.
• Hextall was insular to a fault, he butchered most of his signings and trades, and there was beyond ample cause for his firing. I openly advocated for it myself, despite having respect for both the person and the ex-goaltender. But he also was hearing from — and answering to — far more voices than any GM should ever hear over his head. He was taking calls on a regular basis not only from Burke but also from three different people at FSG: John Henry, Tom Werner and Dave Beeston. I can't know what those calls might’ve been about, but I can only concoct so many reasons for a team owner to call a hockey GM if it isn’t on hockey matters. And no, I'm not even dropping a hint here on this source.
• I still have no idea what Burke did. At any stage of anything. It's amazing that his name so seldom came up for such a long time. Source: Me.
• There’s no love lost between current management and previous management. And not just at the ownership level. I’ll leave that right there, as well, while also expressing a hope that it changes. It’s unproductive for the franchise’s future to see/hear them sniping as they do. Source: Me again.
• The individual who has the best opportunity to bring people together is the current president of business operations, Kevin Acklin. I'll offer a hope here, as well, that he does. Source is me one final time.
I’m privy to a lot more than this, obviously, so I’ll take an unusual step this week and answer our subscribers’ questions to this effect in the comments section, just in case I might’ve omitted something.
No, really, anything at all.
STEELERS
• Let’s swing this back into more standard sports stuff with a simple two-minute video in which I marvel at Corey Trice Jr., a 6-foot-3 cornerback, being an inch taller than me:
• That was at the Steelers’ OTAs this week on the South Side, an event at which no rookie was slotted onto first-team duty for the simple reason that Mike Tomlin hates doing it. But I very much get the impression that there are several rookies with a very real, though hardly cemented, chance to start right away: Broderick Jones, Joey Porter Jr., Keeanu Benton and, in some sets, Darnell Washington.
• What’s the biggest impression the Steelers made on Mason Cole this offseason?
“We’re looking a lot like the Eagles,” he told me with a wide smile. “Which I totally get.”
He wasn’t saying that just because Isaac Seumalo and Nate Herbig arrived via Philadelphia. He was saying it more so, actually, because Andy Weidl’s emphasis on making the Steelers bigger and badder has reverberated throughout the team’s headquarters.
• Please, please, please don’t misinterpret what Dan Moore Jr. and Kevin Dotson told me the other day about possibly losing their starting positions as defeatism. That’s not their mindset at all. If anything, both sound like they’re intent on making the best of the situation that exists, regardless of how or where they’re deployed. And if there’s any outright ill will, including for Weidl, who they very much see as the voice behind the changes to the left side, they’re doing a superb job of masking it. They just want a chance to play and show what they can do.
• I’ve got nothing too concrete here, but take my word for it that Kenny Pickett’s comfortable in his new shoes. So different than where he was and how he tiptoed a year ago.
PIRATES
• I’m way out here in the Pacific Northwest to cover the weekend series against the Mariners, and I’m fully expecting to see/feel a fresher clubhouse. All season, for some reason, this team’s seemed looser, more relaxed both before and after games at PNC Park. Even the younger guys. Honestly not sure why.
• Why’s Rodolfo Castro being relegated, for the most part, to a platoon role?
Well, the obvious answer is that he’s slashing .340/.424/.700 against lefties, .203/.320/.234 against righties. All five of his home runs have come against lefties, too. That’s a wicked set of splits. But if there’s any plan to have him abandon switch-hitting outright — and it was definitely discussed in Bradenton this spring — it’s not something that’s been shared with him. Nor is it something he’d want to do.
• Remember all my columns about management ‘punting’ on the 2023 season?
If not,. they were mostly about having heard from people at the top that, while they very much anticipated — and expected — improvement, this wasn’t about to be any sort of all-in season. Fast-forward, then, to the winter and Andrew McCutchen being brought back, and that optimism intensified, ultimately manifesting itself into the 20-8 start and all kinds of warm and fuzzy.
Now that the figurative water’s finding its level, let’s just say that this Ben Cherington quote from a media session Wednesday at PNC Park succinctly summarizes the sentiment I was originally citing last fall: "We made no secret: We came into 2023 focused on improvement and wanting that to be continuous over the course of 2023 and beyond 2023. Nothing's changed there. We have improved. We're not satisfied with that. We want to keep getting better, we know we need to keep getting better, and the best way for that to happen for us will be by players who are already in the organization contributing even more over the course of 2023 than is happening now, both players who are here on our major-league team already and players who are potentially in the major leagues. We do have the benefit of time and games to continue learning more about that."
They're learning. They've got time.
That’s it. Right from the source.
• Thanks for reading Insider! Looking forward to a weekend of baseball coverage in one of America’s coolest locales!
