Hextall's Moves

[hatcher]

It wouldn't surprise me at all if Filppula was signed to be the 3C. Hextall loves slow-cooking the prospects. Depends on how Vorobyev finishes the year.

Overall Hextall has been very good when you look at the "body of work". He has been "reliable". Hakstolisms aside, Hextall is miles better than some of the bottom GMs out there. If we had a Benning or Bergevin it would be driving us all nuts.

Benning's Nucks are way better than the flyers to watch and the young players are looking way better. Flyers next to young D have nothing at forward right now next to the older players and really nothing we can say is a home run at forward for youth. hexy isn't much.

 

[deadhead]

We have seen Hexy be good at rebuilding. I am interested to see what happens next with two firsts, and overload at fwd, and an overload at D. I would think they either try and move up in the draft or trade assets for a young top 6 player. It’s clear they need another game changer.

The problem for Hextall is he can see a flood of players arriving, starting in 2019-20.
Next year he'll have Lindblom, Vorobyev, NAK, MV and Martel as potential forwards, but none are game changers.
Do you panic and trade for a big "name" or stay the course?

 

[Stizzle]

I can not believe we have 1 more year of Letera. This guy is terrible.

Look up his buyout numbers. The cap penalties are cheap. I don't think he'll be back.

 

[Magua]

Look up his buyout numbers. The cap penalties are cheap. I don't think he'll be back.

Would rather just bury him than a buyout. We have a lot of ELCs and the cap isn't an issue next year either.

 

[Rebels57]

Would rather just bury him than a buyout. We have a lot of ELCs and the cap isn't an issue next year either.

If he isnt bought out I will bet my house that he gets into games next season.

Injuries will happen and because he is a veteran he will be an option that gets chosen over a prospect like Vorobyev for example.

 

[deadhead]

The only reason Lehtera would play over Vorobyev is that Vorobyev isn't deemed ready to start.
Hextall is very consistent, veterans play as replacements for short-term injuries, prospects come up when they're ready to play on a regular basis (and the veteran is then exiled). What he doesn't like to do is yo-yo a prospect, bring them up, throw them in for a half-dozen games, send them down again.

 

[Striiker]

"The only reason [insert terrible player] would play is [insert fake reason here]"

You're not tired of using this template to be wrong yet, huh? Couldn't be that these idiots actually like these trash players, right?

Just accept it, these idiots truly value these bad players.

And thank God Weise is keeping the spot warm so Lindblom doesn't yo-yo.

Thanks Hextall, for your consistency.

 

[Magua]

If he isnt bought out I will bet my house that he gets into games next season.

Injuries will happen and because he is a veteran he will be an option that gets chosen over a prospect like Vorobyev for example.

I'm not that worried about Lehtera. I think they love Vorobyev, and he will get into the lineup next year, provided he can have a strong rest of the season. Watching him in the AHL he already looks like he gets it. The fact that he's a center really leaves Lehtera no room, and he can barely play wing. Worst case scenario: Lehtera fills a Matt Read 14th forward/AHL role.

Dale Weise bothers me more than Lehtera. He was a day 1 Hextall free agent target, not a cap dump, and while they're not above scratching him, they keep going back to him time and time again to justify his presence. We have 2 more years of Mister Ed as well, so he's going nowhere. And apparently Martel and others can't be called up to replace him because they don't got dat size like him.

 

[deadhead]

I'm not sure Martel is that good, period. Sure, he's having a hot streak, based on an unsustainable shooting percentage.
He's shooting 28%, his norm is more like 13-16% (13% last year, 16% the year before), which is still well above the NHL average.
So assume he was shooting his norm he'd have more like 15g 7-5 12, which would not be raising anyone's eyebrows.
So the assumption that he'd provide this big offensive boost is more wishful thinking than a concrete fact.

Weise/Lehtera/Read were the 12th forward starting the season with Patrick healthy.
At some point Patrick will return, Lindblom will get called up and all three will be banished.
There's no "love" for these veterans, Weise was given a shot to start the year and he blew it, Lehtera was on the bench.

Lindblom could have won the job in training camp, but didn't look NHL ready, he's not the first Swede to spend a month or two in the AHL making that adjustment.
MV has a lot of college experience, so he may also get a call up at some point. But, he had his shot in camp and didn't shine.
NAK is in his second year in the AHL and has made a big jump.
I think Hextall probably thinks all three are superior to Martel, at least in the long-run. They've all showed they can score and have more well rounded games.
Vorobyev may spend the whole year in the AHL because he's significantly younger and less experienced than the other three.

 

[Striiker]

It's not about Martel, he's just an example.

The point is that size isn't even close to as important as you're trying to say.

Lindblom could have won the job in training camp, but didn't look NHL ready, he's not the first Swede to spend a month or two in the AHL making that adjustment.

Lindblom never had a chance to prove he was NHL ready. He played in 2 or 3 games... clearly they already decided before he stepped on the ice.

Their weak excuse for sending him down was that they wanted to see more offense out of him... which is obviously a lie considering how little he played and how half the guys on the NHL team scored the same in their tiny preseason sample size. Lindblom showed how advanced the rest of his game was by being a monster on the boards and being good defensively.

Plus, Patrick didn't score... so is he not ready?

Nope. They had already decided during the offseason that they wanted him in the AHL... so the AHL is where he sits.

 

[Striiker]

And let's not go back to pretending that they use the preseason to decide who makes the team and who doesn't.

It's too small of a sample size. They decide way before then.

If preseason performance actually mattered, Morin and Sanheim would be the two rookie defensemen in the lineup. But they decided before then that they wanted Hagg, so here he is.

If Lindblom was actually given a shot, he'd be up here too.

 

[kelmitchell]

Look up his buyout numbers. The cap penalties are cheap. I don't think he'll be back.

As long as haktard is here, its possible hes back

 

[FLYguy3911]

I can see it now. Martel will get a few games in the bottom 6, no special teams, little production and we won’t hear the end of it. Overhyped!

 

[Magua]

Martel put up a 13-15% shooting % on the back of 5v5 scoring and little PP time. Take someone like Tarasenko. Over the last handful of years, this premium sniper, shoots 11.2% at 5v5.....versus 18.3% on the PP. As no one should be surprised, PPs tend to elevate shooting %s. Martel is on the PP now (didn't start that way, only last handful of games). He won't shoot 28%, but nothing is stopping him from still shooting at a high %. He has always been a goal scorer, even in the Q.

Even if you take his shot totals (3.3 shots/game, up from last year by over 1 whole shot/game), and assume he shoots the year at his sustainable 15% clip, that's 34 goals in 68 games, which would've led the AHL last year. And those 14 goals in 15 games still happened, you can't erase them. He's a bit better passer than his assists show right now, so it's also not impossible to see his assists rise a bit to provide a modicum of balance when his shooting % regresses. If he ended up with 60 points in 68 games, which would flirt with top 10 probably, people would still be pretty dang impressed for an undersized 22-23 year old. But I think more people would rather he get called up and have no chance to do so.

 

[Magua]

I can see it now. Martel will get a few games in the bottom 6, no special teams, little production and we won’t hear the end of it. Overhyped!

It's going to happen though. The Flyers right now don't know how to develop a young, flashy, skilled forward if they got Johnny Gaudreau gift-wrapped. They barely even know what to do with Konecny.

Now, 200ft grinders who do the little things....they're rolling them out of the factory like Model Ts.

 

[Rebels57]

This organization kind of sucks.

 

[deadhead]

No, the fans here suck.
We knew when Hextall took over it would be a 5 year process, he had to dump a lot of overpaid veterans on long-term deals and totally rebuild the talent pipeline.
People want him to rush a group of solid but second tier prospects.
Hextall doesn't want to do what the fans want because he's sticking to his plan which he started to implement four years ago.

So now I have to read a lot of stupidity about "favoring veterans" (really? where are VdV, PEB, Umberger, Vinnie, L Schenn, Streit, MDZ, Grossman, . . . )
When it's obvious if you've watched Hextall is that he's very consistent:
1) he doesn't like to force prospects into the lineup until he thinks they're ready, and most of our prospects aren't elite talents
2) he'll play prospects who are ready, that is, who'll will step into the lineup and start and play a substantial role
3) junior is the toughest call, because once a player dominates at that level, you have to balance overwhelming them in the NHL v bad habits in juniors

Lindblom did not look NHL ready in exhibition games or his first month in Allentown, Vorobyev looks to be a bit behind Lindblom. It's not whether he got a point in an exhibition game, you could see that he was a half step slow, processing the game. A number of SHL players have done AHL stints when they came over.
MV came out of college undrafted, he didn't stand out in camp either. He wasn't the top college FA.
NAK had a so-so season last year, Morin still had issues they wanted him to work on. Martel had two solid but not special seasons that didn't show the exceptional offensive skills he has to have to compensate for his extreme lack of size.

So Hextall is erring on the conservative side. So you have to watch one of Lehtera/Weise/Read when Patrick returns. Boo hoo.
Some of these AHL players are stepping up, but beware of SSS effects. Hextall probably wants to see if he's looking at a good month or the arrow is permanently pointing up. My expectation is we'll see a steady flow of these players starting in December or January, depending on their progress and where to fit them.
For example, once Lindblom comes up, who does Martel replace and in what role? Same with NAK and MV.
If Morin comes up, how do you juggle all the LH defensemen?

 

[FLYguy3911]

O my...

 

[deadhead]

Plus, Patrick didn't score... so is he not ready?

Nope. They had already decided during the offseason that they wanted him in the AHL... so the AHL is where he sits.

Patrick was a junior dilemma, Hextall would have loved to have sent him to the AHL for a few months.
But it's either juniors where it's obvious he could learn nothing by dominating kids 2-3 years younger, or the NHL, where he's been going thru growing pains, even when healthy.

 

[tucson83]

The problem for Hextall is he can see a flood of players arriving, starting in 2019-20.
Next year he'll have Lindblom, Vorobyev, NAK, MV and Martel as potential forwards, but none are game changers.
Do you panic and trade for a big "name" or stay the course?

if we stay the course, nothing is going to change, it's been like this since carter and richards were traded, giroux and jake are not the answer we have to be realistic about that because they are not getting any younger and we are wasting their value as well. im not saying tank this team, im just saying trade them in the offseason, get some game changers in free agency or trade and put them around patrick and courts.

 

[Rebels57]

if we stay the course, nothing is going to change, it's been like this since carter and richards were traded, giroux and jake are not the answer we have to be realistic about that because they are not getting any younger and we are wasting their value as well. im not saying tank this team, im just saying trade them in the offseason, get some game changers in free agency or trade and put them around patrick and courts.

Giroux and Voracek are absolutely players that can help them win a Cup.

Hakstol is not the coach to do it.

Im not yet sure Hextall is the GM to do it. Poor player evaluation and we have yet to see him make moves to help them win now so we dont know how well he will do there. Will he be able to make a movie like Poile just did for Turris for example?

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

Outside of drafting I don’t have much faith in this organization elsewhere.

 

[Rebels57]

Outside of drafting I don’t have much faith in this organization elsewhere.

Im becoming very disenchanted with the whole organization.

 

[bennysflyers16]

Im becoming very disenchanted with the whole organization.

Agree, sadly lots of teams draft well, developing is a whole different story tho.

Haks and Hexy need to be a lot better on the second part

 

[Rebels57]

Agree, sadly lots of teams draft well, developing is a whole different story tho.

Haks and Hexy need to be a lot better on the second part

And the complacency masquerading as patience..ugh.