Penguins Update: Liking What I See from Hextall

It’s way early yet. There’s a long, hot summer ahead and our favorite hockey team has a lot of holes to fill. And only $15 million in change with which to do it.

So far, I like what I’m seeing from Ron Hextall.

Aside from embattled Minnesota GM Bill Guerin, I’d be hard pressed to think of a general manager who’s facing a more daunting set of challenges. Indeed, Hextall’s tasked with rebuilding a fading former champion. On the fly without sacrificing the future. And signing franchise icons Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin to new deals without breaking the bank while fleshing out a competitive team.

Oh, and restocking the team’s barren prospect pool without the benefit of prime draft picks. All the while convincing a new ownership group he’s the right man for the job.

If it were me, I’d be having kittens right about now.

Give Hextall credit. He seems to be rising to the admittedly stiff test. He smartly extended pending UFAs Letang and Bryan Rust by trading off dollars for term, in the process preserving as much cap space as possible.

Perhaps it’s a bit of a shell game and there’ll be a price to pay down the road. But I credit Hextall for being creative, a trait you wouldn’t think he possesses given his tight-lipped, straightforward nature.

Indeed, when I think of GMRH words like methodical, deliberate, measured and precise come to mind. Jim Rutherford he ain’t. Maybe that’s a good thing. After all, it was JR who steered the good ship Penguin into troubled salary cap waters with his shotgun blast approach to team building…then bailed before he had to deal with the consequences.

I like the work Hextall and his staff did at the draft. Top pick Owen Pickering is a bit of a project, but his selection drew unsolicited praise from a number of other teams. For several years I’ve lamented the Pens’ lack of size and gristle. In Pickering, Nolan Collins and Luke Devlin, Hextall drafted bigger kids who can move, breaking away from the speedy Smurf mold favored by coach Mike Sullivan.

When Hextall did go small? He picked an athletic Russian goalie and a highly skilled and competitive player with NHL bloodlines in Zam Plante.

For the record, when you have some bigger players in the mix, it’s perfectly acceptable to season the lineup with the likes of Evan Rodrigues, Valtteri Puustinen (and Plante). As recent Cup winners Colorado and Tampa Bay have so clearly demonstrated, variety is not only the spice of life but hockey teams, too.

But I digress.

With free agency looming in a few days, we’re entering a critical phase of the summer. Decisions need to be made, post-haste, on Rickard Rakell, Rodrigues, Danton Heinen and Kasperi Kapanen, to say nothing of Geno. Decisions that will have a profound impact on the makeup and direction of team in the coming season.

That’s a lot of horseflesh to have in play simultaneously. Starting with the Malkin negotiations, a critical piece of the Pens’ puzzle, there’s still plenty that can go awry. Given the challenges he’s facing, Hextall has virtually no margin for error. Indeed, he almost needs to be letter perfect in his moves.

Nor is he performing his duties in a vacuum. There are 31 other GMs out there, each with needs. Each eager to strike the best deals possible for their respective clubs. Roughly akin to snorkeling in a shark tank between feeding times.

Talk about being precariously perched on a razor’s edge. I’m sure Hextall’s experienced some sleepless nights.

Thus far he’s been calm and steady through the storm. And he’s earning my trust.