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Updated 3 hours ago
Injuries to Olli Maatta and Justin Schultz during Thursday's game with Winnipeg didn't send Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford scurrying to his phone to immediately try to add to his team's defense corps.
There are two reasons for that.
First, there was no need to scurry. He already had been looking for defensive help for a while, starting long before Maatta had hand surgery that will keep him out six weeks and Schultz was diagnosed with a concussion.
“We were going to go into this market this month with the understanding that if the right defenseman was there, for what we felt was the right price, then we would move on it,” Rutherford said Saturday.
Second, no matter how much he scurried, it's the sellers, not the buyers, who decide when the market starts to move in advance of the March 1 trade deadline.
“We're going to have to go through these next two weeks and go along on the timeframe of everyone else,” Rutherford said. “We'll be looking at adding one or two more defensemen.”
Rutherford expects he won't be alone in that quest. Defensemen, especially those who have demonstrated an ability to handle significant minutes, are usually one of the hottest commodities in the league on deadline day.
“Teams that are going into the playoffs want to have depth at every position, but especially at that position,” Rutherford said. “I don't think it's a whole lot different this year.”
In the meantime, Rutherford expressed confidence in the players who will fill in for Maatta and Schultz, a group that includes Chad Ruhwedel, Steve Oleksy and Cameron Gaunce.
“We are comfortable with our depth,” Rutherford said. “We feel our depth guys are capable guys.”
Despite his team's need on the blue line, Rutherford said his focus won't be narrow as the deadline approaches. He's open to discussing any move, big or small, that he feels will make his team better.
“I'm in the same conversations as everybody else and keeping an open mind to anything's that out there, with the understanding that maybe I don't feel the same urgency as some other teams do,” Rutherford said. “We're certainly in the conversations. If something makes sense, then we'll move forward on it at any position.”
In general, when Rutherford looks at his team, he sees a group that is winning games — the Penguins are 6-0-3 in their last nine heading into a home game with Detroit on Sunday afternoon — but not playing up to the high standard it set during a run to the Stanley Cup last season.
He's not complaining about the effort his players are giving or calling anyone an underachiever. He's just acknowledging they'll need to kick it up a notch or two over the next two months to have a good shot at repeating.
“I feel we have the players that can accomplish that,” Rutherford said. “We play like a team, some nights, that had a short offseason. We do whatever it takes in certain games to win, but not necessarily play at the level we will play at in the playoffs. With the fact that we basically have the same players and knowing what we did last year, that's a concern that has to be dealt with, but I'm not so sure we need any new players to accomplish that.”
Notes: With winger Carl Hagelin recovered from a concussion, the Penguins sent winger Josh Archibald back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Saturday. … The Penguins will honor Sidney Crosby for recording 1,000 career points with a brief ceremony before Sunday's game with Detroit.
Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jbombulie@tribweb.com or via Twitter at @BombulieTrib.
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