Jim Rutherford has been an NHL general manager concurrently since 1994, winning three Stanley Cups and leading two franchises from three markets for exactly 1,900 regular-season games.



So, the former Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes GM and current Pittsburgh Penguins GM knows a thing or two about running an NHL franchise.



Rutherford, who will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November, knows that it doesn’t matter how intelligent, how competent, how ready a person may be to park himself in that big boy’s chair, the moment he sits down for the very first time, there are immediate stresses and pressures that were never experienced in his previous role.



Bill Guerin was a great hockey player.



By all accounts, he was a great assistant general manager in Pittsburgh.



But now, as he begins his run as the Wild’s GM, he will be responsible for every hockey operations decision for the first time in his...