I think one issue that had Hextall concerned was his puck handling, there's less space in the NHL and if he has to keep the puck further from his body to handle it he's going to be stripped a lot. And he'd be handling the puck primarily in the D-zone, where turnovers are more dangerous. And of course, keep your head up so you see what's coming at you.
"Upon getting loaned back to the Phantoms earlier this month, Hextall did give Morin something concrete to focus on. He told him to keep his head up. Literally, not figuratively.
"Following the conversation, Morin noticed Hextall was right and has made adjustments."
Out of press box, Sam Morin thriving with Lehigh Valley Phantoms
Hextall also planned to bring up Morin and play him at some point in the sesaon:
“They’ve all shown signs of being close, ” Hextall said of Hagg, Morin, and Sanheim. “[They’ll be] playing certainly at times this year.
I’m sure they’re all going to see games [with the Flyers]. Whether they’re up the whole year or not remains to be seen.”
G on LW seemed to be an experiment in September:
"It’ll be interesting.
We’ll see how things shake out. It’s funny because he came up [through the minors as] a right wing the whole time and really transitioned to center in the NHL which is very difficult. But really once you get over our blue line it really doesn’t matter anymore what position you’re playing. Guys are all over the ice, criss-cross. So that part doesn’t matter.
It takes a little bit of the heavy lifting off down in the defensive zone, frees him up a little bit more offensively. So we’ll see as we go along. I think we’ll certainly always use him in the face-off circle, even if he’s on the wing. He’s too valuable there for us. But we’ll see how it goes. But in my opinion G can play really any of the three positions.”
Ron Hextall compliments rookies, gives insight into his plans for the roster
