The date may not live in infamy. But Friday, June 27, 2014 was a bellwether day in Penguins history.
Barely three weeks into his new job, Pens GM Jim Rutherford swung his first major trade. He dealt James Neal—former 40-goal man, big and ornery, bomb of a shot—to Nashville for Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling.
“We wanted to change the mix of the team,” Rutherford explained.
There was push back aplenty, from all directions. Including rumblings out of Moscow that a certain ex-linemate of Neal’s was less than thrilled.