Jtown
Registered User
True. But I doubt Hextall signed bad veteran players on purpose. Question is, would he still have signed someone like Weise if we had been a contender?
He also kept all these players way too long. Weise and Vandevelde played 3 seasons for us.
At least Fletcher realized Hartman wasn't a fit and moved him for Pitlick.
I think hexy wanted cheaply attained , cheaply signed, players while young talent was ready to slowly take over. Braun is not cheap nor was he cheaply attained. same for niskanen, same for hayes. Adding talent is always going to make your team better. I understand what Hextall was trying to do. He wanted to wait longer to be competitive. And had he waited longer I believe he would have had a system that would have allowed for not only long sustained success, but would have the depth to make a major move here or there if it needed.
Right now the Flyers are hot. This is the best team we have seen in quite some time. And as much as I am all on board with this team, there is apart of me that realizes that the sum is greater than its parts. I would not be surprised if next year this team struggled to meet expectations. Look at Calgary last year. 1st seed in the West to having a negative goal differential this year.
It's easy at this very moment to stand at the mountain top and judge hexy. But without Hexy Fletcher would never be in the position he currently is in. Fletcher walked into the most advantageous situation by a GM that I can recall. He had a competitive squad, tons of cap space, tons of draft picks, and the best nhl prospect pool, to go along with numerous young talented players on the nhl roster.
Spending money, trading picks and signing guys to win now is the easy part. The hard part is sustaining that success over the long haul