What Bill Guerin’s potential exit would mean for Penguins’ front office

Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty ImagesWhen the Pittsburgh Penguins hired Jim Rutherford to be their general manager before the 2014-15 season it was not expected to be a long-term position.

The assumption at the time was that he would be an experienced, stabilizing presence to help change the direction of a team that had been falling short of expectation in the playoffs and eventually pass the torch on to one of the three(!) assistant general managers the team was employing at the time — Jason Botterill, Tom Fitzgerald, or Bill Guerin.

All of them were seen as potential GM’s, whether it be in Pittsburgh or somewhere else.

It was an unorthodox set up, and there was reason to have some…