Hextall played during the Clarke era. An Era of Deep Pockets, Big Time Free Agents, Spur of the moment Trades and Reluctance to draft any Talent. The coaches we went through after murray was just a whirlwind.
After Hextall saw the approach taken by the kings of drafting and developing I think he kind of wanted to bring a new philosophy to Philly. I don't blame him, the clarke method and homer method while almost working did not work. Hexy has this patient , draft approach which is fine and refreshing. I love the amount of young talent and assets he has added to the organization especially at the Goal tending position. Hexy had done so many un flyer things such as draft defenseman over and over again, draft Russians and this past year draft outside of the chl. The Hiring of Hakstol was another out of box approach. Hak was the first college coach to be hired out of college into the nhl in a very long time. Hexy in many ways needs to be applauded for broadening the flyers philosophy and approach in this new Salary cap era. Some of his trades i questioned , but other have been downright brilliant at shedding cap.
The Ultimate problem I have with him is this. We have a roster with two different directions. We have an older group of Forwards that are clearly win now guys in Giroux, Simmer and Voracek. Then we have a 5 year gap between the next group of young studs in Coots and Ghost. Hexy wants to keep the vets so we win now. But the inexperience and inconsistent youth keeps us from winning at higher levels. So at the end you get what we have had these past 3 years. A very elite group up top, followed by a rather inconsistent group behind that. The hope is that by the time the younger group has extablished itself we will still have 2 good years out of Giroux and Voracek to lead us. I think that is a Gamble not worth taking. Our window is not from 2018- 2022. Our window is 2o22- 2030. That is the window that Hexy needs to focus on. I love Giroux and Voracek. Giroux is probably my all time favorite flyer and it's by a lot. But we will never win a cup with him on his current deal. So instead of having his elite player go to waste , trade him. A guy like that would bring in a coup of assets. assets that we can then use to strengthen that window of 2022-2030. Or he could go with the other option and that is to strengthen the 2018-2022 window. You do that by trading frost, hart, farabee, O'brien , etc etc and getting established talent. And now you are loaded up to win with giroux and Voracek. But Hexy is trying to do both, and if you play for both windows you won't win.
In the Cap Era , you have to go for it. And Hexy has still not decided what Window he wants to win with. This inconsisent up and down is going to occur over the next 5 years as we slowly integrate the young talent onto the roster, because that is how young players play. If Hexy is fine with that than so am I , but don't let giroux and voracek fade away for nothing. Those are extremely valuable assets that could help a team like Boston, or LA or CBJ or Anaheim, even Vegas. If you traded giroux to vegas you would get back cody glass and Nicolas Hague easily. If you Traded Voracek to LA you might be able to get Vilardi if you sweeten the pot a bit or if you take back cap space.
Now imagine that scenario, going forward with a center pool of couts, glass, vilardi, frost, patrick . Has any team in the history of hockey ever had such a promising pool of young centers in their organization? I am just spitballing here but this is the reality we face. We are not winning this year, and we are not winning it next year. So why even have these great players efforts go to waste when they could bring back valuable prospects to add to our young core , the core that we are going to win with.