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Jim Rutherford won the Stanley Cup twice as Penguins GM. Dave Sandford / Getty Images
PITTSBURGH — Jim Rutherford sat inside the Commoner in downtown Pittsburgh Friday morning, picking at his poached eggs and toast.
Then, one by one, the memories rushed back into his mind.
Now the president of hockey operations for the Vancouver Canucks, Rutherford, three weeks shy of his 77th birthday, will be part of a celebration honoring the 2016 Stanley Cup champion Penguins before Saturday’s game against the New York Rangers at PPG Paints Arena.
“Boy, do I love this city,” Rutherford said with the hint of a smile.
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Just over five years ago, Rutherford stunned Pittsburgh and the hockey world with his abrupt resignation as Penguins general manager. He left only seven games into the shortened 2020-21 season.
“I wouldn’t say I have regrets for leaving,” Rutherford said.
He just wishes the events leading up to his departure never happened. Namely, he wishes COVID-19 never happened.
Rutherford said Friday that there was never a skirmish with ownership, former CEO David Morehouse or the coaching staff. He wasn’t told to trade Evgeni Malkin or Kris Letang. All of the rumors that circulated during that time, Rutherford insists, were not true.
The depression he felt from the pandemic, however, was very real.
“I think, if it wasn’t for COVID, I probably would have been in a much different state of mind entering that season,” Rutherford said.
Rutherford had just turned 71 when the pandemic brought the world to a standstill.
“Those 11 months just really took their toll on me,” he said. “I never got COVID during that time, even though I’ve since had it. But it took a massive toll on me. My son (James) didn’t go to school for those 11 months. He didn’t get to play hockey. I never left my property during that time. I’d work from home, my son would play his video games. We got our groceries delivered at home. So, yeah, we survived it, but the toll it took on me really changed me.”
Rutherford explained that his passion and focus for the job he loved had faded during those 11 months. He didn’t really want to resign, but felt he owed it to the Penguins and himself.
“If it wasn’t for COVID, I would have been here for longer,” Rutherford said. “I truly do believe that.”
When presented with the rumors about his departure, Rutherford shook his head and dismissed all of it.
“It had nothing to do with other people or anything like that,” Rutherford said. “It was about my mental state of mind. That was the problem. The Penguins, Mario (Lemieux) and Ron (Burkle), everybody treated me so well and with so much respect. My whole time here, everyone was first class. That literally never changed. I just had to step away for my own personal reasons.”
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Although his decision to leave the Penguins appeared to be impulsive, it was not. From the moment COVID-19 struck in March 2020, Rutherford considered a departure.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “I was thinking about it those entire 11 months, to be honest with you. Just sitting at home all the time, those days that turned into months were so hard. It wasn’t an overnight thing.”
Rutherford’s affection for Mario Lemieux (“the best, and there will never be another like him”), Mike Sullivan (“one of my best friends”) and Sidney Crosby (“one of the best players who ever lived, and one of the best people who ever lived”) made leaving all the more difficult. But Rutherford’s heart told him he had to leave.
“It was so terribly hard because I was treated so well in Pittsburgh and we accomplished so very much,” Rutherford said. “I enjoy everything about this place.”
Not too long after leaving Pittsburgh, of course, Rutherford got the itch to run another team and ended up in Vancouver. Two years ago, his Canucks got within a game of the Western Conference final. Today, they sit at the very bottom of the NHL standings.
“It hasn’t been a fun season,” he said. “We’re in a whole new stage in Vancouver. A lot of important decisions. You hope the rebuild won’t take longer than is necessary.”
How much longer does he want to keep working with the Canucks?
“Another 20 more years, probably,” he said with a grin before turning serious.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I think the biggest thing is my health. And how I manage stress. I’m actually managing the stress better than I thought I would. This has been a very difficult year.”
Why did he take a job in Vancouver when he thought he was retired after leaving the Penguins?
“Heck, I thought I was retired after I left Carolina (in 2014),” he said. “I thought for sure that I was done after leaving the Penguins. But it’s all I’ve done my whole life.”
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When Rutherford watches a 7 p.m. ET game before his Canucks play three hours later in Vancouver, he typically finds his attention drifting to the Penguins. He’s still the godfather, five years after he left. And he can’t help but notice the job Kyle Dubas has done this season.
“Just terrific,” Rutherford said of the Penguins president/GM. “I had people coming to me during his first season in Pittsburgh. They kept asking me what was going on with Kyle. ‘What about Kyle? What about Kyle?’ My response to those people was to give the man some time. I have the utmost respect for him, and I always have. He’s so hard-working, so smart. I’m telling you, this is a great hockey man.
“It’s a tough job. I put Hexy (Ron Hextall, the GM before Dubas) in a tough spot. I had traded so many draft picks. It wasn’t an ideal situation. And it was the same thing for Kyle. But Kyle’s been able to figure it out. That team is good.”
As breakfast came to an end, Rutherford couldn’t help but notice how quickly time passes and how much has changed in the five years since he last attended a Penguins game in Pittsburgh.
“Flying here yesterday, I thought about how many friends I have here,” he said. “And since the last time I was here, some of them are gone now. It hit me, the way things change.”
Time flies — unless you’re Crosby or Evgeni Malkin, of course, Rutherford joked. He had a rebuild in mind when he was still the general manager in Pittsburgh.
“I did,” he said. “I knew it was coming, but I didn’t know when. If I would have guessed, I’d have been wrong. I didn’t know they’d (Crosby and Malkin) still be this great at this stage. I love those guys.”
Rutherford, whose schedule is packed over the next couple of days, began to head toward his hotel room when Patric Hornqvist and Carl Hagelin emerged from the adjacent elevator.
The two former Penguins gave a bear hug to Rutherford, who turned around and grinned.
“We sure did have a great team,” he said. “Not one bad apple. Just good people winning Stanley Cups. I’m so honored to be here this weekend.”
Josh Yohe is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. Josh joined The Athletic in 2017 after covering the Penguins for a decade, first for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and then for DKPittsburghSports.com. Follow Josh on Twitter @JoshYohe_PGH
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