Dan’s Daily: Penguins Rutherford Outbid Six Teams for Kapanen

The fishbowl in Toronto doesn’t hold many secrets. After the Pittsburgh Penguins trade for Kasperi Kapanen, our friends in Toronto kept digging. The results were shocking and may make you question Penguins GM Jim Rutherford. Also, in the links below, the NHL held a moment of reflection after the police shooting in Kenosha, WI. The Tampa Bay Lightning earned a 2-1 series, lead, as the Colorado Avalanche and Philadelphia Flyers both avoided going down 3-0.

First, the Penguins.

For our subscribers, the Kapanen – Penguins trade really hurt the Penguins’ ability to re-tool. We explain in detail (PHN+)

Pittsburgh Penguins GM Jim Rutherford outbid six teams for Kapanen, according to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. Josh Gold-Smith of the Score recaps the details (The Score)

The Chicago Blackhawks refused to give up the 17th overall pick for Kapanen, and the Carolina Hurricanes refused to part with the 13th overall pick.

In other words, the Penguins were the ONLY team willing to give that first-rounder for Kapanen. If the Penguins were on the verge of being great, and this deal shoved them in that direction, it would be hard to argue. However, that is not the case.

Other teams appropriately judged their position. Rutherford did not.

As PHN noted in our instant analysis, the Penguins overpaid. We detailed the overpay, but now we know just how badly. As a writer and broadcaster, I’ve seldomly criticized Rutherford, but this overpay also ties the Penguins’ hands in their re-tooling effort. Kapanen isn’t a bad acquisition, but the Penguins paid a bad price; a price which other teams desperate for the same help refused.

Colorado and Dallas held a moment of reflection before Game 3 on Wednesday night after an unarmed black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by police in Kenosha, WI (Sportsnet)

After a deep google search, I finally found the videos, including the second angle. Here’s the story (ABC 7)

Evander Kane and Matt Dumba, who co-founded the Hockey Diversity Alliance, spoke out against the NHL’s response (Yahoo Sports)

National Hockey Now

Tampa Bay essentially ran over Boston in Game 3. Rookie Dan Vladar started in goal for Boston and Tampa hung a 7 on him. Five takeaways from the beatdown (Boston Hockey Now)

Colorado looked a bit like…Colorado on Wednesday night. They beat Dallas to save their season and avoid a 3-0 hole. Dater dishes the grades (Colorado Hockey Now)

It’s an absolute crazy world we live in. Nuts, actually. San Jose Sharks forward Logan Couture was sucker punched for mentioning Donald Trump (San Jose Hockey Now)

John Cleese, of Monty Python brilliance perhaps summed it up best 30 years ago…