Could Ron Hextall come back to haunt the Flyers?
Around these parts, former General Manager Ron Hextall gets a ton of credit for setting the Philadelphia Flyers up for what could be an extended period of success. His steady rebuild of the club, along with his pedigree as one of the most beloved Flyers of all-time, are what made his 2018 firing so shocking.
After losing his job in Philadelphia, Hextall returned to the Los Angeles Kings organization where he had previously cut his teeth in the front office. Many assumed he would get another GM job someday. And now, with the Flyers’ biggest rival suddenly in the market for one, Hextall looks to be solidly in the mix.
Could former Philadelphia Flyers GM Ron Hextall join the Penguins?
It makes too much sense. The next GM of the Penguins will inherit a club nearing transition. I’m not foolish enough to ever count out a Sidney Crosby-led team, but the writing appears to be on the wall in Pittsburgh. They are widely regarding as having one of the worst farm systems/prospect pipelines in the league at the moment. And early glimpses of the team this year seem to confirm that they are in need of a rebuild from the net out.
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Enter Ron Hextall. Maybe.
When discussing his tenure as GM in Philadelphia, people love to point out his draft success via the likes of Carter Hart, Ivan Provorov, and Travis Sanheim. The Penguins would no doubt sign up for a multi-year run of selections like these in the near future as they face the ever-increasing menace of their star players “aging out.”
With stars Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang just over a year away from free agency, big decisions need to be made within the Penguins organization. Given his history, Ron Hextall would seem like a good choice to make the determination of whether to try to keep one or both of them in the fold or to flip them for assets that could potentially benefit the club for an even longer period of time.
There is no shortage of intriguing candidates for the Penguins’ vacancy, but Hextall would be a strong contender if there was mutual interest. And while I’m not paranoid enough to believe that Mario Lemieux and Penguins management would go out of their way to “stick it to” their cross-state rivals by hiring a franchise icon, I have to believe that Hextall himself would have strong motivation to replicate what he did in Philadelphia but then see it through to completion, something which he did not get a chance to do with the Flyers.
Personal pride and professional ambition should never be underestimated, especially when dealing with someone like Hextall who has shown his, uh, fiery personality time and time again.
The current Penguins are in much better shape than the Flyers club which Hextall took over in 2014. Possessing generational talents like Crosby and Malkin will do that for a team, even as they slow down with age. But something must be done to keep the club from falling off a cliff, potentially very soon. And Ron Hextall could very well be the perfect man for the job.
Next. James van Riemsdyk is silencing his critics. dark
The Flyers have to worry about keeping their own house in order first and foremost. If Ron Hextall lands in Pittsburgh, so be it. But if the Philadelphia Flyers emerge from this competitive window without anything to show for what Hextall helped build and then see him go on to create something bigger and better, then Flyers fans might just be persuaded to quit hockey altogether. The bottom line is that maybe we should hope another candidate lands the Penguins’ GM job, because a motivated Ron Hextall could be bad news for everyone else.