RALEIGH, N.C. -- The question seemed simple, really: "Why Derick Brassard?"
Why deal two valuable veterans off the current roster, a top goaltending prospect and two draft picks for Brassard?
Why orchestrate a crazily complicated three-way trade that was initially rejected by the NHL?
Jim Rutherford, who has been around the league all his adult life, the last quarter-century of it as a general manager, called it "the most complex trade I've made" after Friday night's 6-1 rout of the Hurricanes at PNC Arena, adding, "We thought we had it done earlier. We had to make a couple changes. There were cap issues and how the three teams lined up and who went first."
Yikes.
So the aforementioned question, to him, undoubtedly came across as academic.
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"Why not?" Rutherford asked back with a smile. "You've seen him play? He's got 18 goals and he's got 38 points."
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