Mark Madden: Jim Rutherford's 5 trades in 2015-16 transformed Penguins, NHL

Jim Rutherford is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He won three Stanley Cups as an NHL general manager.

When the basics of your resume are that strong, drilling down deeper figures to unearth a few bright, shining moments.

Rutherford’s was the 2015-16 season. It was his Picasso.

Rutherford made five trades in an eight-month span that totally transformed the Penguins. He took a lifeless team that had underachieved badly since winning the Stanley Cup in 2009 and made it “hard to play against,” as one of hockey’s oft-repeated platitudes says.

But these Penguins were really extremely hard to play against. They had stars, skill, goaltending and depth. Their lines fit. They had just enough edge.

Most of all, they had speed. The Penguins became the NHL’s fastest team. They could not be outskated. Their decision-making and puck movement were comparably quick.

What Rutherford was doing should have been obvious. But it sneaked up. Suddenly the Penguins were overwhelming. As Rutherford said Thursday on my radio program, “We pretty much dominated the playoffs that year.”

Very rarely has a GM had more direct impact on winning a championship. Not only did those Penguins win the Stanley Cup, and again the next season, they transformed the NHL. It became a speed league. Everybody got fast — and, unfortunately, caught up to the Penguins.

“I had a vision,” Rutherford said. “I’m a guy who likes skill and likes speed. That’s what we turned that team into.”

The first trade was the biggest: On July 1, 2015, Rutherford sent forwards Kasperi Kapanen and Nick Spaling, defenseman Scott Harrington, and first- and third-round picks to Toronto for forwards Phil Kessel and Tyler Biggs, defenseman Tim Erixon and a second-round pick.

Kessel had outstayed his welcome in Toronto, like he had in Boston and would in Pittsburgh. But for two Cup runs, the mercurial winger was transcendent. In 2016, his play on the third line made the Penguins impossible to check.

“We felt we needed an impact player, and I felt pretty strongly about Phil Kessel,” Rutherford said. “I felt him getting out of Toronto and being under (Sidney Crosby’s) leadership and playing with guys like Sid and (Evgeni Malkin) would take some pressure off.

“And that’s how it turned out. He was an impact player.”

More deals followed: Center Nick Bonino from Vancouver. Trevor Daley from Chicago for Rob Scuderi, an absolute steal: A new-age, puck-moving defenseman for an old-school clubfoot. Winger Carl Hagelin from Anaheim. Defenseman Justin Schultz from Edmonton.

The acquisition of Hagelin showed how fit can matter more than talent.

Rutherford sent winger David Perron to the Ducks for Hagelin. Made in a vacuum, that’s a terrible trade. Perron has far more ability. At last look, Perron had 226 goals and 330 assists in 857 NHL games. Hagelin has 101 goals and 165 assists in 611 NHL games.

But Hagelin put the motor in the aforementioned third line: Hagelin, Bonino and Kessel. HBK. They sold some T-shirts and won a few playoff games.

Hagelin fit perfectly with the Penguins. His blinding speed took the team’s collective speed up another notch.

“I picked up Perron at a time when we were having trouble scoring goals,” Rutherford said. “He helped for a little while.

“As his game started to slack off a bit, we wanted to shake things up. We wanted to add some speed. Hagelin was struggling where he was, so we brought him in. We knew his character. We had a real good picture of what the player was. He can skate and track down loose pucks.”

No GM bats 1.000 when it comes to trades.

But in 2015-16, Rutherford did. He made the Penguins into champions.

The championships won in ’16 and ’17 made history on a few levels.

They are the only back-to-back titles earned since the NHL’s salary cap era started in 2005.

Those Cups solidified the reputations of Crosby and Malkin. There’s no debating what they’ve accomplished, no asterisk attached because their team underachieved. It’s hard to argue Crosby isn’t a top-five player all-time. That wouldn’t be the case had Crosby won just one Cup.

Rutherford did all that. No GM has ever done better than he did in 2015-16. Those Stanley Cups got him in the Hall of Fame. Perhaps those five trades did.

“We were a very hard team to play against,” Rutherford said.

If you saw those Penguins, you know.