Hail, Hextall!

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cardI owe Ron Hextall an apology. Back in 2013, I was critical of Flyers then-GM Paul Holmgren and had Jim Nill (Asst GM of Red Wings at the time) as my dream replacement for Holmgren. I had Ron Hextall as my second choice. I underestimated Hexy and I apologize. He has been the dream replacement to a frachise that had been reliving the same mediocre nightmare for decades.

Kudos to Ed Snider for trusting Hextall in this slow-building process. If I didn’t see Snider at the NHL Draft, I would’ve thought he may have been incapacitated in some way for the Flyers to draft a Russian player with the 7th Overall pick. I was even suspect when the Flyers didn’t trade that 7th overall pick for the likes of Marian Hossa. After the trade of Zac Rinaldo, I’m not so sure that wasn’t an Ed Snider stand-in at the NHL Draft table and Mr. Snider isn’t incapacitated.

Zac Rinaldo gone for a 3rd rounder? I don’t know which is more amazing. That Hextall had the ability to trade an “aggitator” who likes to get physical at all the wrong times or that Hextall got someone to give up a 3rd round draft pick for Rinaldo. It’s gotta be the 3rd round fleecing of the Bruins in the deal, right?

Check out this Rinaldo tidbit from Broad Street Hockey back in January:

Rinaldo has 905 minutes in penalty and suspension time in his NHL career. He has 1,592 minutes of time on ice. Suspend him just 12 more games and he’ll have spent more time being disciplined by the NHL than playing in it.

Think about that. Hextall unloaded one of the more under-achieving, low-hockey-IQ players for a pick that will allow him to grab one of the top 90 amateur players in 2017 Draft. Unreal!

Yeah, he also traded away a contract (Pronger) that is $5M/year for a guy who was just voted into the NHL Hall of Fame and Nicholas Grossman, who’s lack of speed makes Pat Burrell look like Ben Revere, for Sam Gagner. Gagner has been in the year 7 years, but is still only 25. He hasn’t lived up to his hype, but he’s been on some terrible teams. Gagner was the 6th overall pick by Edmonton in 2007. He’s a low cap hit with potential.

With the selection of defenseman Ivan Provorov with the 7th pick last week, many believe the Flyers have the most talented group of young defensive prospects in the NHL. The interesting thing about the Provorov pick is that several outlets had him as the top-rated defenseman in the draft and no one mentioned his physicality. I’ve read/heard “best offensive defenseman,” “offensively-gifted,” “high IQ.” I didn’t think the day would come when those adjectives would describe a Philadelphia Flyers top 10 draft pick.

The times they are a-changin’.  Sound, rational trades and drafts. Hartnell gone. Rinaldo gone. Drafting high IQ players. Things are going in the right direction in Flyersville. We will never forget the Broad Street Bullies, but that mentality has zero place in winning in the NHL these days.

Thank you, Ed Snider for hiring and trusting Ron Hextall. Thank you, Hexy for doing what you’re doing. See ya at the parade…..in maybe 3 years. Cool?