Philadelphia Flyers: Final thoughts regarding Ron Hextall’s departure

Following the Philadelphia Flyers poor start to the 2018 season, the front office shook things up in a big way by relieving former general manager Ron Hextall of his duties.

When word came out that the Philadelphia Flyers would be making a change within the organization, many immediately assumed that the first casualty would be and should be head coach Dave Hakstol. The embattled coach has faced his fair share of criticism after leading his team through several losing streaks, despite only being a third of the way through the season.

Criticism is not something new to Hakstol, as the Flyers under his regime have largely been irrelevant on the national stage and are slowly starting to fade into the background of relevance in the pantheon of Philadelphia professional sports. Flyers fans have been beyond impatient with the bench boss, repeatedly calling for his firing.

So it came as more than a surprise when it was announced that the organization would be moving on from general manager Ron Hextall, the current architect of the team’s pseudo-rebuild for past four years.

And while fans were understandably confused that the coach of the team was not the first person to be relieved of his duties, the decision to part ways with Hextall first was, on the surface, understandable.

After all, Hextall had saddled the team with a horrendous goalie tandem that ranks at the bottom of the league, and his only major move to make the team better this offseason was acquiring James van Riemsdyk, a move that hasn’t immediately paid dividends.

On top of that, Hextall continued to stand behind a coaching staff that doesn’t appear to be up the NHL caliber, while remaining overly committed to his process.

In the end, the organization felt it needed to make a course correction in order to not only save the season, but to once again change the direction of the franchise.

Here are three final thoughts regarding the decision by the team to fire Hextall.