Kate Gillis-captained Canada, he says, has an average age of 21 (70 caps) in bringing an aggressive style to the HB Cup this week with two-cap Thora Rae, 16, as their youngest and 148-cap Thea Culley, 30, as their oldest.
The Pan American Games bronze medallists lost 2-1 to the United States in the semifinals and with that their Rio Olympic hopes last year.
"But we were really chuffed to get the invite here last year as it's a great tournament to be involved with," says Rutledge, lauding the format of the tourney reflecting a world-class competition and the calibre of teams.
In March next year Vancouver will host World League 2. With Olympic quality Australia, Korea and Japan in their pool, he says it adds value to the prospect of playing in a one-off quarterfinal opportunity.
"The quality of this tourney is second to none outside the World Cup-level events and the Olympics, to be honest."
In Canada they have good players but the depth of athletes is exposed when facing a hockey-first nation.
With an ice-hockey base, the players' prowess is evident at the goalmouth once they make that choice between the two versions.
"It's just our ability, as they call it in Canada, with stick handling so you'll see some unorthodox shots at goal ... so you do see the rub off on the girls from ice hockey."
To be in New Zealand, a hockey-loving country offers his women an opportunity to savour that atmosphere in the next few days.
"We're excited by that and looking to honour that."
With Australia, Korea and japan in their pool, Rutledge's troops are looking forward to the prospect of playing in a quarterfinal in a one-off opportunity.
"You don't have get too many opportunities around the world where you can unless it's the World Cup or the Olympics so the quality of this tournament is econd to none outside the World Cup and Olympics, to be honest."
He has been moulding a predominantly young outfit since 2013.
"The biggest thing for me is time on task with a small population of athletes to just make sure you're establishing continuity from the players and making sure we have purpose ... ," he says, emphasising that's why their world ranking has improved from 23rd to No 19.
"We're ranked 19th in the world but the organisers of this tournament know we're not 19th just by the way we play so time on task is the key."
In their first 6-0 loss to the Kiwis in Hamilton last weekend, Rutledge feels Canada had the run of the play for the first 22 minutes but things went awry once they conceded a soft goal.
With an average of 21 his women's task is put in persepctive against several centurions in the Mark Hager-coached Black Sticks' mix.
"A goal went in and we probably didn't handle it very well so the Black Sticks are very clincial so that game went away from us from a scoreline perspective," he says, believing they played better in the 5-1 loss in the second pre-tourney match.
"We generated 13 chances against the Black Caps and they generated 15. We took one of the 13 and they took five of their 15 but you're looking at a sharp and experienced," he says, suspecting that's the difference between the sides.
"We gave them a sniff and they took it. We gave them half a chance and they took it so that's a credit to their coach, Mark Hager, who was a renowned goal scorer in his time," says Rutledge of Hager, a former Hockeyroos striker.
He predicts, assuming New Zealand play Australia in the cup final the following Sunday, the side that'll take their chances will etch their name on the silverware.
Australia are the defending champions while the Kiwis are still in the hunt for a win in three years after Argentina won the inaugural one.
"This shows you the growth of the New Zealand game because Australia's hockey is three or four times bigger than New Zealand's so here's a small country with a very small hockey population that can still generate a performance and over 10 years continually competes with a larger hockey country in the world."
Rutledge says that speaks for the magnitude of what the programme does for the code here.
For Canada the goal is to play well every game and show incremental gains along the way.
"We need to show we're putting our game out there and the opposition has to beat us."
On leaving the New Zealand shores, Canada want to know where their strength lay and where they can develop.
