Pens' Rutherford: 'There is something wrong. Changes need to be made'

After yet another early postseason exit, Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford knows he has to make some changes.

"There is something wrong," Rutherford said, according to The Athletic's Josh Yohe. "Changes need to be made."

In regards to the team's coaching staff, Rutherford added: "We had a good regular season and dealt with adversity and got through that. You look at that and give credit in the right places. You also have to look at what happened here at the end of these last two seasons and there's a pattern here."

The Penguins were eliminated from the playoffs last week at the hands of the 12th-seeded Montreal Canadiens despite finishing the regular season as one of the league's top teams. Pittsburgh was swept by the New York Islanders in the opening round of last year's playoffs.

Despite the Penguins' lack of recent postseason success, Rutherford confirmed that he doesn't plan to make any changes to their aging core, which includes stars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang.

"I plan to move forward with the core. These are good players. They still have good hockey left in them," Rutherford said. "I always have to say, if some amazing trade comes along, you have to look at it, but I will not actively be looking at trying to trade our core players."

However, Rutherford acknowledged that he may not be able to keep his team's goaltending duo intact due to the flat salary cap. Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry are both set to become restricted free agents this offseason.

The Penguins currently have 11 impending free agents on their active roster.

Copyright (C) 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.