Fire Hextall

[Redpath]

Game thread now locked so I’ll share my thoughts again here.

I think everyone can agree Hextall has done a phenomenal job of ridding our immovable contracts (Lecavalier, L. Schenn, Pronger), accumulating picks, and drafting plenty of potential.

With the cupboard stacked, what has Hextall done to give anyone hope that he can properly evaluate when a prospect is ready for the NHL (baring being blatantly ready), bringing in NHL talent (See Weise, Umberger, Filppula, Mrazek failures), or hire a competent coaching staff? (Hakstol, Gordon, keeping abysmal Laperierre) Having faith in him for the next phase, if he ever is even ready to make that step, takes complete ignorance of everything he has shown as GM

 

[Beef Invictus]

I'm not ready to fire him yet...


Unless he doesn't fire Hakstol this summer. If he doesn't fire Hakstol then Hex needs to go down with him immediately. Keeping Hakstol on would be such an egregious dereliction of duty.

 

[MacDonald4MVP]

What Hextall has done so far can be compared to the job Ron Francis has done in Carolina. Even down to recyling borderline backups in a goal.

 

[Magua]

If Hextall could remove his head from his ass and actually look at the Penguins as a model for changes in personnel and coaching and style of play -- and how a talented, young team can really be turned around in a heartbeat -- we'd all be a lot better off. Not holding my breath. We're not close to firing HIM, but his stubbornness in the face of failure has been too much of a constant for my liking. Winning on your own terms is code for losing on your own terms.

 

[Fire Hakstol]

I am really started to sour on Hextall as a GM as don't have much confidence. It has been over 4 years now and despite some of the draft choices which look promising he is responsible for many bad signings AND the choice of Hakstol as head coach.

 

[Hurricane28]

This summer is huge for him. Stop kicking the can down the road and start making your roster better. Enough of 3-5 years. Your star isn't getting any younger, and you've done a great injustice to him throughout his career giving him slop to work with.

 

[Frickley]

Seems to me that unless philosophical changes in player evaluation and a coaching change happen soon, best hope at this point is to keep loading up in the draft (which Hexy has done well with) and hope that sheer numbers of good young talent force his hand.

 

[Starat327]

No. Just no.

 

[Jtown]

Hexy needs a smart offseason to redeem himself here. But time is wearing out.

 

[achdumeingute]

Your star isn't getting any younger, and you've done a great injustice to him throughout his career giving him slop to work with.

What were the choices that Hextall had. We had no cap room, and no assets to trade. So aside from the wizardry to dump some of the bad contracts we had, you were expecting him to conjure up players with nothing?

I guess he could have overpayed for Patrick Marleau, because thats the ONLY impact FA in the last few years.

 

[Limeyjim]

I wish the Flyers could hire a G.M. who wasn't a former player.

 

[FLYguy3911]

I guess the part I'll never get over is the guy that preaches patience with prospects and not skipping steps, turned around and hired a college coach with no pro experience and just let him run the show in the Big Leagues (not to mention he kept all of the assistants that coached under the previous coach ). It's bizzare.

 

[bauer]

lets see what he does in the off-season. i know people are emotional, but it's way too early to even discuss such a thing right now. he's been very good up to this point, minus all things Hak.

Manning, Filppula and Read will all be gone. Lehtera will hopefully be bought out. MacDonald demoted. let kids fight for those bottom 6 roles.

maybe sign Bernier for 2 years. let him and Elliott split starts until Hart is ready.

on D, add Morin and Myers. they both are ready.

up front is where Hexy will really need to do some tinkering. a trade will probably need to happen because there's not really many options on UFA.

 

[EdmFlyersfan]

Hextall's approach and framework for constructing the team through the draft is correct; the problem is:

The Coach
Both Goaltenders
3rd pairing defense
Weise, Lehtera, Read, Filpula

Most if not all can be fixed; and he better do it this offseason or it's time to start to question his ability as well; it will be the start of year 5.

 

[deadhead]

If Hextall could remove his head from his ass and actually look at the Penguins as a model for changes in personnel and coaching and style of play -- and how a talented, young team can really be turned around in a heartbeat -- we'd all be a lot better off. Not holding my breath. We're not close to firing HIM, but his stubbornness in the face of failure has been too much of a constant for my liking. Winning on your own terms is code for losing on your own terms.

The Penguins a "talented young team" - uh, I don't think so, maybe a talented experienced team when Sullivan took over, most of the top players were in their late 20s, early 30s.
Maata is the only "young" player they've had the last few years, unless you think 22-24 with one to two years of AHL experience to be "young."

The Flyers aren't a talented team yet, now in two years, when a bunch of current young players have 3-4 years experience, and the bottom six is full of talented young players with 1-2 years experience (i.e. they're playing limited minutes), then you can call us a "talented young team." Because we'll have a bunch of 22-24 year old players then (Couts 27, Ghost 26, Patrick 21, Konency 23, Lindblom 23, Provorov 23, Sanheim, 23, Morin, 24, Myers 23, Vorobyev 23, Frost 21, Ratcliffe 21, Rubtsov 22, Allison 23 . . .)

 

[NicolasAubeKubel]

We’ll see what happens this offseason. I expect Morin and Myers to replace Manning and Amac, Frost to replace Filppula, and Aube Kubel to take a spot from one of Lehtera/Read/Simmonds. Vorobyev can push for a spot also. I don’t give a damn about “too many rookies”

Still won’t be a real contender until Carter Hart is in net, I won’t judge Hextall on goaltending next year or actual W/L results. All of those other things I expect.

If it’s another year of the same core+Morin and maybe Aube-Kubel being dicked around by Hakstol and nothing happens, I will join the Fire Hextall wagon

 

[Ruck Over]

Am not here yet on the #FireHextall bandwagon (when did this become a thread even?).

Dislike a lot of the management moves of this current season in a vacuum. His seat is not, nor should be, hot. He needs to both manage the club, and his copy editor/PR person, better. It's one thing to present crap on the ice, I need not be offered it like soft-serve ice cream. GMs can be honest about rebuilding, since that is clearly what the Flyers are doing. Don't mislabel it by calling it a retooling. Don't mislead your fanbase by saying you are competing for the Cup, when it is clear you are not. Saying you like the talent on this team, when it is clear there is bad talent on this team, #BOOOOOoo. The coaching? The coaching, nuff said.

Edit: Started, then ended, ~late Nov '17. Necro'd during PO v. Pens, Apr '18. Makes more sense now.

 

[Magua]

The Penguins a "talented young team" - uh, I don't think so, maybe a talented experienced team when Sullivan took over, most of the top players were in their late 20s, early 30s.
Maata is the only "young" player they've had the last few years, unless you think 22-24 with one to two years of AHL experience to be "young."

The Flyers aren't a talented team yet, now in two years, when a bunch of current young players have 3-4 years experience, and the bottom six is full of talented young players with 1-2 years experience (i.e. they're playing limited minutes), then you can call us a "talented young team." Because we'll have a bunch of 22-24 year old players then (Couts 27, Ghost 26, Patrick 21, Konency 23, Lindblom 23, Provorov 23, Sanheim, 23, Morin, 24, Myers 23, Vorobyev 23, Frost 21, Ratcliffe 21, Rubtsov 22, Allison 23 . . .)

Of course you focus on that minor detail and not the BIG thing of changing coaches....we know why.....but.....

They had Guentzel, Sheary, Rust, Dumoulin, and Murray ALL rookies on their 1st cup team. They were a very important part of things. And Maata as you mentioned. Our core is actually a bit older than theirs was, as they were all in late 20s.

But focus on going from the human ball and chain that was Johnston to Sullivan. Or not. It probably didn’t matter.

 

[baudib1]

Guentzel led the league in playoff goal scoring last year, on a team that has Crosby, Malkin and Kessel. He was a third-round pick in 2013 and spent half a season in the AHL. NAK was a third-rounder in 2014, was one of the best 5v5 scorers in the AHL, and can't get a look on a much weaker team.

 

[dats81]

Hextall will be in the focus now how he handles the off season:

One or more of the coaching staff need to be replaced.
He must resist the temptation to offer new contracts to Manning and Filppula.

He's not going to swing the fences for any free agents or get involved in any major trade talks anyway so I don't expect any harm done in that area.

 

[BillDineen]

This offseason will be challenging.

I have been fine with the rebuild providing there is a payoff. Some troubling things from the last year that do not give me a ton of confidence going forward:

- Morin and Hagg only getting one game last spring
- Comment on fear of youngest d ever in Novemeber
- Choosing Lehtera and Weise over Read
- Not sending Lehtera down and bringing youth up (try Vecchione, try NAK late)
- Recalling Goulbourne for 9 games of uselessness after Reeves played well against
- Allowing Simmonds to play through whatever he has when he was obviously struggling
- Comment on vets a month ago

Fire Hak and buyout the trash is a bear minimum for me to support him going forward.

 

[achdumeingute]

Of course you focus on that minor detail and not the BIG thing of changing coaches....we know why.....but.....

They had Guentzel, Sheary, Rust, Dumoulin, and Murray ALL rookies on their 1st cup team. They were a very important part of things. And Maata as you mentioned. Our core is actually a bit older than theirs was, as they were all in late 20s.

But focus on going from the human ball and chain that was Johnston to Sullivan. Or not. It probably didn’t matter.

Johnson was a big part. No doutbt. Some of the core Pens were there in 08 and 09, so they had that SCF/Winning experience already.

We've got G and Flip.

 

[Magua]

Johnson was a big part. No doutbt. Some of the core Pens were there in 08 and 09, so they had that SCF/Winning experience already.

We've got G and Flip.

I meant 15-16.

 

[Starat327]

Guentzel led the league in playoff goal scoring last year, on a team that has Crosby, Malkin and Kessel. He was a third-round pick in 2013 and spent half a season in the AHL. NAK was a third-rounder in 2014, was one of the best 5v5 scorers in the AHL, and can't get a look on a much weaker team.

HES NOT THICKE NOUGH, DAMNIT

 

[achdumeingute]

I meant 15-16.

I'm saying their core went to cups and won them before. When the coach changed, and they had some quality young role players there, they augmented an already winning core and went to the next level.

They had quite a few failures in the first half of the decade.

During that time, i think the AHL club was a pretty good club though, and a good environment. We are fostering the same thing in the AHL right now.