Let’s Play Penguins GM 2022: Part 1

A couple of years back, I played armchair GM and offered my not-so humble opinions on what then Pittsburgh Penguins GM Jim Rutherford should have done in the off-season. If you go back to the summer of 2019 and look, I really wanted Rutherford to raid the European ranks for some good young, inexpensive talent, rather than shop the old high-priced veteran market of the NHL Unrestricted Free Agents. The 3 biggest desires I had was for the black-and-gold to sign Ilya Mikheyev (Wing), Oliwer Kaski (Right-Handed Defense), and Adam Reidborn (Goalie).

Rutherford instead chose to sign Oula Palve (Center) and Emil Larmi (Goalie). At the time I quipped that it would be funny if Mikheyev that turn out…