from Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

“If I could keep most of them together this year, I would do that. But the [salary] cap and the economics will dictate some decisions that we’re going to have to make that aren’t necessarily ones we would make if we didn’t have the cap.”

A year ago, free-agent defenseman Ben Lovejoy was the only major offseason departure.

This time, the Penguins have seven unrestricted free agents — forwards Matt Cullen, Chris Kunitz and Nick Bonino and defensemen Trevor Daley, Chad Ruhwedel, Mark Streit and Ron Hainsey — who could move on, whether to retirement or another club.

“I don’t want to close the door on anything at this point, but we do have a flat cap [ceiling] coming and we already know there are some [restricted free agents] who are going to get raises,” Rutherford said.

“Then we have a group of UFAs. I haven’t met with them yet, so I won’t get into that at this point in time. I’m going to meet with them [Thursday].”

Because free agents generally can’t sign with new teams until July 1, although there is a an earlier window this year for them to accept contracts from the new franchise in Las Vegas, the Penguins have a more pressing concern than players whose contracts expire in 2 ½ weeks.

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