Confirmed with Link: Pens hire Hextall (GM) and Burke (POHOP) - Part II

BlindWillyMcHurt

ti kallisti
May 31, 2004
34,092
27,915
I feel like this shit’s got dream team written all over it. Buck up, boys and girls.

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Oh wait you said "BUCK" up. Uh... disregard.
 

Pancakes

HFBoards Sponsor
Sponsor
Mar 4, 2011
25,943
17,619
I think a fairly like scenario is:

1. They only nibble at the edges during the season this year
2. They look to make bigger moves this off-season, with guys like Dumoulin, Zucker, Matheson, Letang and Tanev as logical guys who could be moved out. Sullivan could also be fired, but I think that's more likely in the 2022 off-season, when I'm anticipating a larger retool will happen.
3. Hextall will basically make the same kind of moves JR was trying to make: win-now moves but getting younger doing so. I just hope he doesn't make the same bad moves JR made.
4. If shit goes sideways next year, where they're not even close to contending, that's when I think the "rebuild" starts.

I could see significant roster changes happening in 2022, but it's kinda hard to "blow the team up" when a lot of your most valuable assets are pending UFAs. They're not going to say re-sign Letang only to trade him that off-season.

Yeah I think this year they will try to contend unless the wheels completely fall off. Next year if they aren't remotely close or even if they're just straddling a playoff spot but look hopeless to win I could see Hextall wanting to pull the plug. The question is would Mario et al allow him to. Thing is Hextall made it sound like they discussed a variety of scenarios during his interview. I would have to think that the Pens having a bad year was one of the things they discussed and that Hextall has contingency plans for what to do if that happens. I don't think anyone involved with the team is discounting that as a possibility given how they've done so far this year.

Hextall seems much more in that patient builder mold than JR was and I think that's what the team needs now. We need someone who will try to contend while still building the farm back up.
 

SHOOTANDSCORE

Eeny Meeny Miny Moe
Sep 25, 2005
10,952
4,675
One thing I gotta say. Burke and Hextall make this team fun again. Instead of sitting around waiting for Rutherford to do something stupid we get to sit around and wait for Burke make some asisine big ticket trade ala Kessel, Pronger, Hamilton.

Wonder how we do it.
I forget what it's like to not intensely dread free agency.
 

DeadPuckEra

Registered User
Dec 19, 2014
1,298
670
I think we’ll see the exact opposite of “big trades”. Unless there’s a hockey trade to be had somewhere, but you’re most likely robbing Peter to pay Paul. We don’t even have quality draft picks to trade.

Whether he’s right or wrong, Burke likes his teams with a good amount of nastiness. I think they will slowly but surely try to get bigger/stronger/heavier/more gritty via trade.

These are the type of players Burke likes, these are also the type of players you want around should they decide to tear things down and rebuild.
 

Tom Hanks

Spelling mistakes brought to you by my iPhone.
Nov 10, 2017
30,408
32,434
Hex and Burke are gonna find out about us sooner or later...
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Yeah. Maybe it's us that's the "Problem Child?"

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ooooooooooh new gifs to research. Love problem child. I need to edit my google gif collection and get some new ones
 
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HandshakeLine

A real jerk thing
Nov 9, 2005
47,762
31,609
Praha, CZ
I'm coming around on it.

If nothing else Burke is a pretty smart guy. That's obvious.

Yeah, I don’t agree with Burke a lot of the time, but I think it’s obvious that he has a good critical eye for the organization, and not just in terms of the roster, which he’s leaving to Hextall anyway.

If reports of the front office’s disorganization and freewheeling nature are at all accurate, I think having someone who values structure is going to be the biggest change in the short term.
 

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