When we close our eyes and think of Ron Hextall, we see the Flyers goaltender chasing Robby Brown around Civic Arena ice. We see the madman in a goalie mask, looking to initiate violence, as only a Flyer could. In our minds, we see a menacing figure. Brute force. The ultimate alpha figure.
Hextall apparently left that side of his personality on the ice, and it’s too bad. He could have used it.
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The remarkably inept Hextall tenure came to a merciful end on Friday morning, 793 days after it began on Feb. 9, 2021. There were major oversights, botched trades and personnel assessments of the most curious kind during Hextall’s time as general manager. (More on those later.) There were no playoff series victories. This spring, there will be no playoffs in Pittsburgh for the first time since 2006. It was the final straw.
We could calculate all of his mistakes — and there were many — but there is a greater theme with Hextall, one that someone transported from 1989 to 2023 never would fathom: As general manager, Hextall was soft. Really, really soft.
That, more than anything, resulted in his demise.
The general managers who came before Hextall had conviction. They had a vision. No one told them what to do. They wanted to win at all costs, and that was that. Craig Patrick, Ray Shero and Jim Rutherford are Penguins royalty and, among them, helped the Penguins win the Stanley Cup five times. They weren’t right about everything. The mistakes they made were sometimes glaring. But they had an authority about them.
Hextall had no such thing. It started from the beginning when the Penguins told Hextall they wanted him to build another Stanley Cup team while also enhancing the Penguins’ prospect pool. It was an impossible request, but the fact is, he accepted his orders. And he failed in both departments. Mightily.
Fenway Sports Group pulls plug on Ron Hextall/Brian Burke era with @penguins
Full details (and more) from @TheAthleticNHL ⬇️ https://t.co/cqG2j72RS7
— Rob Rossi (@Real_RobRossi) April 14, 2023
Hextall’s most infamous trade was the extraordinary decision to acquire Mikael Granlund, who is one of the NHL’s worst values. Hextall gave up a second-round pick in this season’s rich draft for Granlund. He even agreed to pay Granlund his full salary for two more seasons after this one, counting $5 million against the Penguins’ salary cap annually. Granlund responded by scoring one meaningless goal in 21 games. Two league sources of mine told me they literally laughed when they heard about this trade, wondering what exactly Hextall was thinking.
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He wasn’t thinking. It wasn’t even his idea. Hextall acquired Granlund on an extremely firm recommendation from his assistant general manager, Chris Pryor. Really. Hextall listened to what Pryor said and trusts him at all costs.
Do you think Rutherford, Shero or Patrick would have let an assistant general manager talk them into a move like this? Me neither. And those guys had the likes of Bill Guerin, Tom Fitzgerald and Jason Botterill making recommendations. We’re talking about Chris Pryor here.
It runs deeper than this, though.
Most Penguins fans are happy that Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang returned to the only team they’ve ever known last summer. A valid argument could have been made for bringing these two franchise icons back, and, frankly, a valid argument could have been made for moving in a different direction.
Hextall didn’t want to bring Malkin back. He wanted to move in a completely different direction. Vincent Trocheck was on his radar, as were other players.
However, the general manager was bullied into bringing both Malkin and Letang back. The fans wanted them back. Sidney Crosby wanted them back. Ownership wanted him back because they’re box office draws. Hextall had other ideas but didn’t have the guts to go through with them,
Sure, Malkin is still a terrific player, and Hextall’s instinct to let him walk may have been wrong. But wouldn’t you respect him more if he simply did what he felt was the right thing?
He never did. Hextall never pushed back. He was along for the ride during a time in which the Penguins needed a strong leader to be their general manager. He was meek until the very end.
Hextall was also guilty of nepotism to extremes. His son has a job in the organization. Pryor’s son has a job in the organization. Jeff Carter, Hextall’s buddy from Los Angeles, received a two-year contract extension in January of 2022, during a time in which such a move was completely unnecessary.
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Indeed, it seems Hextall was merely a people pleaser who wanted to do right by the people he cared about. On some level, that is understandable. In reality, it’s the sign of a horrible general manager.
When the Penguins were at their breaking point in February, Connor McDavid and the Oilers embarrassed the Penguins, 7-2 at home. Late in that game, the “Fire Hextall” chants erupted among the locals. It was a jarring moment. The Penguins were in freefall mode and the fans were calling for the general manager’s head.
So, what did Hextall do during this stretch? He left the team for nearly a week to scout a tournament in Vancouver.
Think Rutherford, Patrick or Shero would have done this? I do not.
What a leader, huh?
Hextall’s mistakes are almost too many to count. He protected Carter in the expansion draft, during which time he decided to part ways with Jared McCann and Brandon Tanev. McCann is a 40-goal scorer in Seattle. The Penguins’ bottom six has never recovered from Tanev’s departure.
Then there was the decision to trade John Marino and Mike Matheson. The incredible decision to give Kasperi Kapanen a two-year, $6.4 million contract after he had spent much of the previous campaign as a healthy scratch.
I could go on and on.
Hextall is one of the worst general managers in franchise history. He may well have destroyed the Penguins with his ghastly record of player transactions.
It’s easy to say that Hextall is a fool, and surely this explains why he stunk as general manager. Maybe.
More than anything, though, Hextall was a weakling during his time as Penguins’ general manager. Tough guy Hextall, the goalie with an attitude, rolled over and let his assistants make decisions. He let his players make decisions. He let fans make decisions. He sat quietly in his office all day while the rest of the organization was fading away.
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Hextall’s decision-making was more than enough to warrant his dismissal. His lack of guts made it a no-brainer.
Whoever replaces Hextall will have their hands full. Major damage has been done.
Hopefully, when asked for a plan by Fenway Sports Group, the new general manager will at least be able to explain the plan. And then have the guts to see that plan all the way through, regardless of what it is.
That would be progress.
The last two years have been nothing but a once great team fading into the night, a cowering general manager guiding them there, one day at a time.
(Photo of Ron Hextall: Keith Srakocic /AP Photo)
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