The Pittsburgh Penguins are still reeling after their elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs at the hands of the Washington Capitals, and the team faces a big offseason as they hope to recapture the Stanley Cup next year.
Pens’ general manager Jim Rutherford talked about a number of topics as the Penguins approach to offseason, starting off with potential roster changes.
“It’s a little (too) early to tell. It’s obvious that I’m going to keep an open mind to making some changes” Rutherford said, according to NHL.com’s Sam Kasan.
“I will make some changes. I can’t give you a definite answer on who that’s going to be right now and exactly the positions.
“We’re a good team, and we will be a good team going forward. We’ll have a chance to win again. We have the nucleus to do that…We also have the pieces in place that are players that other teams are going to want that we’re going to be able to make those changes. Sometimes you don’t always have those players for cap reasons or for different reasons.
As most teams do, the Penguins will approach this offseason looking to improve and Rutherford says a different team will take the ice next season.
“It’s fair to say that this will be a different looking team by the time we open next season. It doesn’t mean there will be drastic changes or a lot of changes, but there will be changes in the areas that will become necessary…If we can improve at defense or forward and the right deal comes along we’ll do it.”
One change that will be in place is that forward Daniel Sprong will be a regular for the team next season.
“We were very careful with him this year. We develop players in different ways. Certainly he had the ability to come in at certain times and play an offensive role on our team. But he needed to work on his all-around game. He did that.”
