Hextall knows what he's doing. NHL team either can win a cup or they can't it's a very black and white thing. Our GM knows this. He's seen what a winning team looks like and what it takes to win in the NHL today. The reason he's not freaking out is because he knows the team isn't suppose to be winning right now. He knows the forward group is sub-par and also recognizes that more than half the d-corps is either a bottom pair defender or worse.
Every person, coach included, has a specific role in a specific plan that's reevaluated at regular intervals. Hexy and Hak want a specific type of player to fit into a particular piece of a larger system for each part of that system and of the 20 necessary pieces they probably have 6 that are what they want right now looking at the long-term picture. That's a lot of fixing to be done. And frankly if the difference is marginal from say finishing 20th or 22nd you say "meh, better picks, not ready yet". This idea that teams honestly believe they can win every year is just lip service.
It doesn't mean the coach is poor or the GM is lost, quite the opposite. They know what the situation is and are building to have the team they want, top to bottom. Hak wasn't hired to deal with the finished product players (or now), but the guys like Provy, Lindblom, Myers, Allison, Stolie, ect... Hextall is looking 4-5 years down the road when the coach has a team he can do something with. If he was hired merely to develop those players and not win with them than fine.
Just look at Babcock and Toronto. Last year they were a bottom feeder and played Matt Hunwick for 60 games. You work with what you have. Sure some line-up decisions are stupid but if its the difference between winning 5 games and not for a team that can really compete anyway it seems silly over the long-term when it costs you better assets.
This year, they have weapons and it shows.
Philly was a wild card bubble team coming into the season and is where they are currently. Basically, stay the course and don't expect the team to overachieve. Doesn't mean you have to over react when things go south or too far north.
The kids can come up at the end of this year or next so they can make a smooth transition without needing to be sent down, or mess with contracts unnecessarily.
