Sorry man, but that's kinda crazy. Rutherford became pretty dislikable near the end. I hated his comments on Schultz. He also quit the team in some kind of petty rage. That being said, this team is mostly his work.
- madmike71
All GM's attempt to identify players they feel are the right fits for their team and no GM bats 100%. The best GM's have stinkers, bad contracts, bad trades, but there are degrees to everything. Sometimes they take a chance that makes them look brilliant and some that makes them look like "wtf were you thinking?"
My issue with JR is he took chances when he didn't need to and seemed to spit in the face of logic. That said, Matheson and Ceci are working out nicely and we can't only attack him with when gambles go wrong. Mind you, the Matheson trade is still a bad one and 10 out of 10 times I don't make that trade regardless of how he's performed.
So on one hand, JR's have given the Pens a very good lineup with more depth than they've had in a long time. On the other hand, Hex has his work cut out for him next season because of those moves.
Hex could have made more impactful moves if JR didn't put them in this position, but JR's moves also made more impactful moves less necessary.
We can't frame the argument to fit the narrative. For this snapshot in time, JR's moves are working out.