We used to have a saying in these parts.
In Ray we trust.
That was nearly a decade and two general managers ago. I don’t know if the same could be said of present Penguins GM Ron Hextall. Indeed, he’s come under increasing heat for the team’s wobbly performance this season.
I don’t envy him. Haven’t from the day he was hired to replace Jim Rutherford at the Pens’ helm nearly two years ago to the day. It was roughly akin to being named emperor of Rome just as the empire was set to crumble, or captain of the RMS Titanic just after the luxury liner sideswiped the iceberg.
From the start, Hextall was tasked with an almost impossible two-pronged mandate. Keep the aging Pens on a short list of Stanley Cup contenders and stop hemorrhaging draft picks…a favored practice of his predecessor. All the while adding players to the mix that finicky coach Mike Sullivan would use. Kind of like trying to shove an elephant through the eye of a needle.
Indeed, Hextall needed to be letter perfect with his moves.
Upon review, some were a rousing success. Others…not so much.
On the plus side, his trade deadline acquisitions of Jeff Carter and Rickard Rakell worked out remarkably well. GMRH displayed a lot of patience, skill and nerve in signing franchise icons Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang to comparatively low-cost extensions, along with securing the services of Rakell and Bryan Rust for less than the going market rate.
But as they say, the devil is in the details. In fleshing out the supporting cast, Hextall’s fallen well short of the mark. In the process accelerating the team’s decline from contender to also-ran.
I’ll give him an “A” for effort for trying to improve the team’s defense (and cap situation) with his ambitious summertime Jeff Petry-for-Mike Matheson and John Marino-for-Ty Smith swaps. Although Petry’s been mostly solid, the deals haven’t quite panned out as intended. Especially with Smith languishing in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, at least partly on merit according to reports.
Upon further review, Hextall’s parted ways with a host of players he should’ve retained (Jared McCann, Brandon Tanev, Frederick Gaudreau, Evan Rodrigues) and kept players he should’ve cut loose (Kasperi Kapanen and Danton Heinen). Nor have his prominent free-agent signings (Brock McGinn and Jan Rutta) been anything to write home about.
Perhaps none of Hextall’s moves sum up the mixed-bag nature of his tenure to date better than l’afaire Carter. A goal-scoring revelation upon his arrival at the 2021 deadline, the big center initially flourished with 21 goals, 37 points and a plus-8 in his first 50 regular-season games. Right up to the time Hextall rewarded him with a two-year extension last January 26.
Since then? Jeff has 15 goals, 39 points with a minus-16 in 93 games and is fading fast.
The head-scratching two-year extension of pending RFA Kapanen at an AAV of $3.2 million following a down year? Equally egregious.
That’s a lot of baggage for a team to haul around. Indeed, rather than buoying us up, most of Hextall’s moves seem to be weighing us down like an anchor.
In his defense, no GM gets it right all the time. It’s the ability to work through mistakes that makes an effective executive.
Up till now, Hextall’s played a waiting game. Perhaps he wants to see how the team will perform with all hands on deck before making a move. Since Kris Letang’s return on January 20, the Pens have gone a mediocre 5-5-2 (0-3-1 against Metro Division rivals).
The wild card, of course, is goaltender Tristan Jarry, who returned to the black-and-gold net Tuesday night following a lengthy absence. If Jarry can regain the form that helped him post a 16-5-5 record before the injury bug bit, the Pens may have a shot at a turnaround.
With the trade deadline looming in nine days, it doesn’t leave much time for evaluation.
If the Pens don’t show a pulse? Given his somewhat checkered track record, not to mention cap constraints at least partly of his doing, will Hextall be able to make moves to right the Pens’ listing ship?
A huge question mark at this stage.
Which begs another question. Should he try?
Even if by some miracle Hextall’s able to pull a rabbit or two out of his hat at the deadline, will it move the needle enough to make us a playoff team? And even if the Pens make the playoffs…no lock even with help…would we be able to slay an Eastern Conference Goliath like Boston or Carolina, our likely choice of first-round foe?
Does it make more sense for Hextall to be a (selective) seller rather than a buyer?
Some food for thought. Since our seven-game winning streak in December, we’ve gone 9-12-5 for a points percentage of .442. Only six teams in the league have a worse points percentage on the season.
When you think about it, that’s roughly where we sit in the grand scheme of things. Even during a comparative hot streak prior to the All-Star break, we lost to the likes of Ottawa and San Jose and struggled to beat bottom-feeder Anaheim. We’ve been much worse against playoff-caliber foes.
This year’s draft is a deep one. While landing generational talent Connor Bedard might be too much to hope for, if Hextall sells off a significant piece or two (pending UFAs Jason Zucker and Jarry?) perhaps we finish low enough on the NHL totem pole to snag an impact player in the draft. One who could potentially jump start a rebuild on the fly.
A bold move to say the least. But perhaps worth considering.
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Interesting Conversation Rick!
While I agree with you that I didn't envy RH coming in here, I lean far more to toward Mike on this one. RH has contributed a lot to this team's slow but inexorable death spiral. The trades for Carter and Rackell really didn't hurt the team but neither changed the teams ability to get out of the first round of the playoffs. So, in the end they were lateral moves.
I also understand that the initial signings of McGinn and Heinen last year may look to some as good moves, but just like the aforementioned trades, they changed nothing. Now the McGinn signing may not be hurting the team too much in terms of $$$$ but he certainly isn't really contributing anything to the teams chances of winning right now. Re-signing Heinen again this year like McGinn isn't draining much from the coffers but he isn't contributing anything.
Re-signing Carter and Kappy were horrible moves. I like Kappy but he is doing very little and Carter nothing at all.
I was not a fan of the Matheson trade but he was our best LHD last season and as much as I disliked trading for him, I was just as upset or more trading him to Montreal for Petry and Poehling. Like Mike I know this trade is a nail in the coffin trade. not only did we destroy our LHD but we took on salary to boot, over $2 million.
Unlike Mike, I don't mind the Malkin signing. He is doing what he needs to do and still ranks as a 1B Center, 1A on many other teams. I also understand the Letang signing and if he hadn't had the stroke, he may be close to justifying his salary this season. But I do agree with Mike in that both signings are a bit too long, 1 year in Malkin's case, 1 in Letang's.
However, even though I would have signed Malkin, I would have been very tentative to re-sign Letang for the very thing I just mentioned, his stroke history.
Rackell's contract is cheap in terms of money for this season but again too long.
Rust's contract is not cheap but fair in terms of money, for what he brings but is too long and contains a NMC.
Remove the Petry trade, the Carter, Kappy, and Heinen trades of this past summer and RH had $10 million to reshape this team and he didn't. Add in the Pickering waste of a 1st round pick and as Mike points out the failure to deliver on making this team harder to play against and NO I don't trust Hextall to make the right decisions.
Let's also talk about the discussion now that is going around about Hextall's soft shopping of Petry to a western team. The Defense is the worst part of this team. He needs D more than anything else. And consider that the team was 7-7-3 when Petry was injured. Again NO, NO, NO, Hextall needs to be taken in hand by the FSG. He should not be allowed to make any moves without their approval.
As for Jarry, sorry Rick, all of Jarry's sub 0.900 games occurred before his injury. He went from Oct 22 to Nov 17 without a win while the team was supremely healthy. Jarry is leaps and bounds better than DeSmith and Tokarski but neither of those 2 should be playing in the NHL right now.
Hey Rick,
Great article and a solid explanation of the Penguins current dilemma. I too have a soft spot for GM Ron Hextal in the fact that he inherited an impossible job when he came to {Pittsburgh.. When Jimmy R. resigned suddenly due to differences with the owners of the Pens over a move he wanted to make,that doomed Hextal from the start. The orders to GMRH were clear. Keep the core together and keep pushing the narrative that we are in a" Win Now Mode"...Especially until we sell the team !!
Ron Hextal was left in an impossible situation. He only has 3 possible choices. Buy or Sell....or do nothing.. All of them have risks attached.
Buying....In order to buy something you need to be able to pay for it. The asking prices for good talent are to high now and we have very little cap space to buy anything that will help us win a first Round play off series.So why bother ....
Selling.... Here is the rub. If Hextal sells to much or gives away players and receives not enough compensation in draft picks or prospects in return, he may actually make the situation in Pittsburgh worse. Heaven forbid.
But for me given all that i see unfolding with our Penguins, I would be an active seller and try to land as many 1st round draft picks and prospects as I could.
Do nothing.... I want to send a message to GMRH. "With all respect if you do nothing come March 3rd and we do not make the play offs,you might as well look for another job because the Fans and the media will blame you.!!!!"
Fans are mad and are not used to seeing the Pen's play off streak in jeopardy.
Lets be Bold Rick !!!
Cheers
Jim
Jim
I respectfully disagree regarding Hextall's situation when he took over the GM reins
from JR. Both Hextall and Burke promised to add both size and toughness to a small
and soft Penguin roster - we got neither. What he did do was trade argueably the
teams best Defenseman in Matheson for a rookie who couldn't make a mediocre
Canadian team and a 35 year old Right handed Defenseman.
Then he made a horrible business decision and signed both Malkin and Letang to long
term deals. Jim, one thing I have experience with while working for a Professional
Organization is you can always find ways to circumvent the Cap - GM's are famous for
using the cap as a scapegoat to avoid making a deal. "GM 101"
I mentioned this before and I'll say it again, Sullivan is a huge part of the problem and
IMO Hextall doesn't have the backbone to tell Sullivan to get on board with the Pen's
adding toughness / size or else he's making a coaching change.
Jim - the Pen's need a shake up -I would move both Dumo and Rust if possible but in
my heart I don't think Hextall has it in him to make a bold / tough trade.
Hey Mike,
Thank you for your feedback.Very well done sir..
We agree on many subjects Mike. Sullivan should not be Coaching this current rendition of the Pens because he is incapable of Coaching in any other style than his up tempo, speed game. Even though we have the oldest team in the league and we can not play a full 60 minutes up tempo game. However our new owners feel differently and signed him to a Contract extension..So he is not going anywhere soon.
Maybe there is a connection somewhere with FSG ??
Secondly with the signing of the Core plus Rust, I too was not in favor of signing them ALL. There were other options but once again Hextal was given the orders to resign the Core. It was never in doubt that was the wishes of the past and current ownership.
Thirdly we both agree we need to be sellers and not buyers this year unless it was a steal of a deal as they say but that does not happen very often.. I am not interested in seeing another First round elimination in 2023.
With the other points you raise thank you again because they give me a chance to rethink my positions and for me that is a strength of this site. I love the informed contributors on this site.
FYI , I have serious health issues and this will probably be the last year for me to see the Cup lifted by Sidney. I live in Atlantic Canada and I have seen him play many times since he was about 12 years old.My nephew has played against him in various Provincial tournaments and they played together at the nationals as well,My deceased brother was one of their Coaches one year at the Nationals.. They remain good friends even today .
Hence my connection to following Crosby....
Have a great day.
Cheers
JIM
Hey Jim
Always good to hear your feedback and perception on things with the Pen's. Also, Sorry to hear about
your health issues and I will keep you in my prayers. Thanks again for responding to my message, I
always enjoy your take on the Pen's and it definitely makes me re-think my view on things.
Hopefully Hextall is working on moves that will not only benefit us now but going forward.