In Defense of Hextall ... Mistakes He Has Avoided

[dats81]

The only mistake he has made is the Weise contract. I wish Doc Brown could lend us his time machine so we can talk Hexy out of that one.

Not his only mistake.

Hartnell for Umberger was definitely a mistake. He did the right thing (moving Hartnell for cap space) but he and his scouts completely failed to see that Umberger was done as a player. He should have retained and moved him for picks instead, hell, even Hartnell for future considerations would have worked.

 

[Pelle31]

Hextall has done about as well as he could given the mess he inherited:

1) really cap strapped team, even after dumping Hartnell, he has spent two seasons barely under the cap, with cap considerations driving transactions. Next year is the first year he can operate with cap room, and I doubt he blows it chasing an overpaid free agent.

2) talent in the pipeline was Ghost, Cousins, Stolarz, Leier, Wilcox and the 2013 draft, Morin, Hagg and Madsen. Other than Ghost and Morin, mostly depth players.

3) Couts and Giroux were the only 1st rd picks on the roster, Holmgren's saving grace was the Carter and Richards trades, but go back to 2011-12 and much of the talent was over 30 and on the way out - when Pronger went down, the rebuild should have begun.

4) team was mired in mediocity before Hextall took over, and with limited talent in the pipeline, a downhill trajectory was obvious. Last year was a goalie driven anomaly, that should have been an 85 point team, in which case people would be less upset this season. The ten game winning streak was a fluke, the underlying play during the streak wasn't much different than the rest of the season.

Hextall has drafted a lot of players the last three years, but so far only Provorov and Konency have made the NHL. This begins to change next year as the remnants of Holmgren's picks and Hextall's first class arrive. The impact should really be felt in two years, when prospects will probably comprise half or more of the roster.

Well said and totally agree. It's going to take Hexie awhile to straighten out the mess that Holmgren left him. Building through the draft is the only way to go, just look at the Blackhawks and Kings, if you want to be a contender for more than one year. Yes this year has been a bummer but the Flyers fans expectations maybe was too unrealistic going into the season, we as fans have to be patience.

 

[baudib1]

Weal can't play over VdV because he'd be useless on the 4th line.

VdV plays all of 8 minutes a night on ES, replacing him won't make enough of a difference than anyone would notice.

And who is going to replace him on the PK, Weal can't. Read has gone down hill as a PK guy, Weise has never done it, Giroux was awful and you don't want to waste his minutes, Luby is an unknown, etc. They've already have 2 of their top 6 forwards as one PK pair.

As Appleyard pointed out a few weeks ago, Hakstol has had the opportunity to add a few other ND players and he hasn't lobbied for any of them, so if VdV is playing, it's because the other options are worse in terms of filling that role, not because he's a former ND player.

It really doesn't.

VDV and Weal have entirely different roles on a team. If Weal is going to be truly effective, he has to be on a scoring line. Problem is he isn't super effective at the NHL level as a scorer.

VDV however is garbage all around in scoring department, but he can skate and is defensive minded. Weal can't fill his shoes (as hard as that seems) on the team effectively.

The idea that the 4th line has a specific role to play on the team that can't be replaced by any other players is just ridiculous.

Wayne Simmonds has never been a PKer before and he's not defensive-minded yet he's been as effective a PKer as the team has had.

Chris VdV's "role" is to play minutes of hockey. I'll take a smaller more skilled forward any day of the week over him.

 

[deadhead]

If your 4th line guys aren't your PK guys, then top forwards have to play an extra minute or two on the PK instead of ES, and inferior players get those extra minutes at ES.

It's easier to find a 4th line who's a solid PK than find a top 9 guy, because PK doesn't require offensive skills.

Simmons is an odd player, he's turned out to be a top PP guy, an effective PK guy, but struggles at ES. Go figure.
Couts was always a PK guy, he's a defense first center.

But you go with two pairs of forwards on the PK.

Cousins and Weal are neither fast enough to harass, nor big enough to clear out opposing forwards, they're what you don't want on the PK.
Weise and Luby have the size and speed, but not the experience, you'd want to start in TC and prepare them for that role.