Rutherford speaks on NHL's resumption of play

Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford joined members of the media on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the NHL's announced "return to play" scenario. For an in-depth look at the plan click here.

Here are the key points:

*The 2019-20 regular season is officially over.

*Players will be permitted to work in small groups at their practice facility starting sometime in early June.

*Training camps will begin at some point in July, but no sooner than July 1.

*There will be a 24-team playoff format with 12 from each conference. The top four teams from each conference will play a round robin tournament to determine the 1-4 seeding. The remaining eight teams will play a best-of-5 qualifying round.

*The fifth-seeded Penguins will open the qualifying round against the 12th-seeded Montreal Canadiens.

The following is Rutherford's comments about the return to play…

"We're at a point where we are all looking forward to getting back to talking about hockey again. This is an exciting time. We're hoping that everything that's been put together, all the protocols and everything, that we can keep everybody safe and get our games going again."

*First of all, Rutherford is a fan of the 24-team arrangement.

"I think the league and players did a good job under these circumstances," he said. "There are a lot of different things that go into making these decisions."

From the Penguins' perspective, however, Rutherford had hoped his club would avoid playing in a qualifying round since Pittsburgh had the seventh-best record in the NHL and eight total teams get an automatic placement in the playoffs.

"From the Penguins' point-of-view, the thing we talked about the most was that we had the seventh-best record in the league when we shut down. Our team did a really good job with the injuries that we had. I'm really proud of our players and coaches. We were hoping that we would not have to be in the play-in and that we would be automatically in."

*That being said, the Penguins have no issue playing Montreal. The Canadiens had the 12th-best record in the Eastern Conference and in normal circumstances wouldn't have been in the playoff picture at all.

"That being said, it's not about any team that we play. The 24 teams that are in, any of them could win the series. Playoffs are hard. Everybody knows that. We know it as well as anybody with the success that we've had. We're not about picking and choosing teams. It was more about we were hoping we weren't going to be in the play-in.

"Montreal dealt with some adversity with key injuries. They have a good team. We all know with the parity in the league now that just because you're out of the top 16 doesn't mean you don't have a good team. It'll be a good matchup."

And from Pittsburgh's point-of-view, they are less concerned with the Canadiens and more concerned with the Penguins.

"I don't think that we should be sitting here thinking about our opponent," Rutherford said. "We should be doing what we did when we won Stanley Cups. We should come in, play our own game, have our players prepare and just play. That's what we're going to do."

*Now that there is some sense of a timeline, the Penguins are planning for the next steps.

"The situation is fluid for the obvious reasons," Rutherford said. "Now we have somewhat of an understanding of guidelines and what the dates could be. They're not hard dates at this point in time, but we have an understanding.

"The first 3-4 weeks coming up are voluntary for the players. We made our players aware of that. We've told the players that the building will be available by the end of next week or start of the following week, and they'll have to make their own decisions as far as whether they're coming back. We do have a group of players that are eager to come back and rejoin our team. I expect that at some point in time in the next couple of weeks, that the majority of our players will be back in Pittsburgh."

*When the Penguins do return to play, they're hoping they'll have the services of forward Jake Guentzel. The winger has been out since late December after having shoulder surgery that requires 4-6 months for recovery.

At the time of his injury, Guentzel was the team leader in goals (20) and points (43) and was selected to appear in his first-career All-Star Game. The team is hopeful that Guentzel, who continues to rehab, will be fully healed and ready to return once play resumes.

"We still have a ways to go before we start playing, so we are optimistic that he will be available to play," Rutherford said.

The Penguins will be missing two forwards upon their return. Dominik Simon underwent shoulder surgery on May 14 and Nick Bjugstad had a setback in his core muscle injury that required surgery. Both players will be unavailable upon resumption of play.

*Rutherford noted that no players - "not to my knowledge" - have expressed any concerns or fears of contracting COVID-19 with a resumption of play format, but the team will take all things into consideration.

The team's doctors will lay out all the details with every individual in the organization.

"The players or people in the organization will have to make their own decisions," Rutherford said. "We are very sensitive to what's going on. We will be very careful with it."

*Though the dates of everything are fluid, there is no doubt that the Stanley Cup Final will take place in late summer. It could be as late as August or September. But, what's most important to Rutherford is crowning a champion.

"I like it. It's not ideal. It's not the traditional way, but nothing is these days," he said. "Just the fact that the players and the owners wanted to play, and figuring out a way to play our games indoors (with it being) hot outside, but the fact that we will do our best to complete this and have a Stanley Cup winner for this season is really important and really good."

*A late awarding of the Stanley Cup means the 2020-21 season will need to be pushed back. While there is no timeline for that, Rutherford hopes they do whatever they need to do to get fans back into the building.

"Delaying next season is really good. The longer we delay it the better, get to a point where we can get our most important people back in, our fans, to see our games," he said. "The further we push next season out, the better chance of that happening."

*Getting fans back into the building is also a necessity from an economic standpoint. The NHL is a gate-driven league - deriving most of its revenue from ticket sales. The clubs will take a substantial hit this season without revenue from the playoffs and lost regular season. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said it could be in the "tens of millions of dollars."

That being said, the Penguins ownership group still wants to win a championship. And they've pledged to spend to the top of the salary cap next year.

"Our ownership is terrific," Rutherford said. "We've had those discussions. We've had a lot of discussions about projections as to where this goes next year. It's very hard to project. But the one thing that Ron (Burkle) and Mario (Lemieux) have said is with the group we have, we will contend for a Stanley Cup and we will be a cap team."