Penguins GM Ron Hextall: 'We want to stay competitive'
Ron Hextall has heard his name chanted before in Pittsburgh.
The first time happened almost 34 years ago at Civic Arena.
As the starting goaltender of the rival Philadelphia Flyers, he infamously chased former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Robbie Brown after a goal and was pulled from a playoff game in April of 1989.
Penguins fans serenaded him with “We-want Hex-tall” taunts.
On Thursday, the chants were different in verbiage.
But similar in tone.
During the second period of an appalling 7-2 home loss to the Edmonton Oilers at PPG Paints Arena, fans in the upper bowl began to chortle the Penguins’ current general manager with a blunt “Fire Hextall” chorus.
Hextall heard it.
And he doesn’t dispute the sentiment.
Nor does he run from it.
“It doesn’t impact me at all,” Hextall said. “I understand the fans’ frustration. We have high expectations as well, and we haven’t met them. I totally get it. When you’re a (general manager), you know what you’re signing up for. We work in the public eye, and they pay good money to come to the rink. They certainly have the right to chant and say whatever they choose. It’s not going to affect anything I do or don’t do. Since I was 22, I came into the league (as a goaltender), criticism was part of the business.
“You have to handle it, you have to deal with it.”
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Hextall has roughly a week to make any deals that would improve his floundering team that is on the outside looking in at the playoff picture with the standings in the Eastern Conference. A four-game losing streak has dropped them to fourth place in the wild-card standings through Thursday’s games.
With the NHL’s trade deadline approaching at 3 p.m. March 3, Hextall indicated he does not plan on being a seller and punting on the season.
“Our intent is to continue to make this team better this year and years beyond this year,” Hextall said. “We want to stay competitive. We made that commitment last summer with our core. Those guys have played well. I guess the hardest part with our team right now is probably the volatility. It’s a tough one quite frankly to put a finger on. We had that streak I think with 20 games where we were really good. Then we had some six-, seven-game streaks where we haven’t been very good.
“Some nights, you ask yourself, what team are we? But I know this: We’ve (shown) that we’re capable of being a very good team and we’re going to continue to make our team better, as I said, this year and years ahead.”
Hextall did not rule out potentially trading high-end future assets such as a first-round pick or one of their scarce top prospects, but he will not jettison one of those entities for a player who could leave after this season as a free agent (or a “rental” to use industry jargon).
“We’re going to do everything we can to improve the team,” Hextall said. “But we’re not looking to spend big assets on rentals. If we’re going to spend big assets, it’s going to help us in years to come. That decision hasn’t been made.
“If we can do something that makes sense for a few years here, makes our team better, we’ll certainly do it and work hard and evaluate it and see if it’s the right decision for our team at this time.”
Despite the Penguins’ struggles, Hextall maintains faith they remain capable of qualifying for the postseason.
“I think we can make the playoffs, yes,” Hextall said. “The prices (for potential trades) are high. They always are this time of year. Sometimes, they fall. Sometimes, they don’t. We’ll continue to monitor the prices and the fits and everything as we go along here.
“As I said, we’ll try to make our team better.”
Hextall addressed a variety of topics with media Friday afternoon in Cranberry.
• Early in the afternoon, the team placed talented but disappointing forward Kasperi Kapanen on waivers. Assuming he goes unclaimed — and there’s little reason to think any other team would want to take on his $3.2 million salary cap hit — he likely would be assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
Hextall opted to re-sign Kapanen as a restricted free agent this past summer to an identical salary cap hit from his previous contract despite his disappointing play during the 2021-22 season.
“It was two years ago (in 2020-21) that (Kapanen) had 30 points in 40 games and looking like he was a pretty good player,” Hextall said. “The feeling was last (season) was a bit of a down year and that he would bounce back. He’s still almost a half-a-point-a-game guy, and I think he can be a productive player. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked here. Tough decisions have to be made along the way. That’s what this was with (Kapanen).”
• Part of the motivation for waiving Kapanen was to clear sufficient salary cap space to activate defenseman Jan Rutta from long-term injured reserve.
“We had to make a hard decision to get (Rutta) back on, and that was the one that was made,” Hextall said. “It wasn’t easy. (Kapanen) is still a good player. Is he a perfect player? No. But there’s not many perfect players. (Kapanen) brings an element with his speed and his skill. It just hasn’t worked here. We’ll see where it goes.”
Even if Kapanen is assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, an additional move — such as potentially placing injured defenseman Mark Friedman on long-term injured reserve — would be required for Rutta to formally return to the active roster.
• There isn’t much flexibility with the salary cap at the moment for even a minor transaction such as a recall from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Regardless, Hextall expressed optimism in a handful of the team’s prospects and what they could provide the NHL club should they be summoned by the end of the regular season.
“We’re still jammed up there,” Hextall said. “(Forward Drew O’Connor) could go down. We could send (O’Connor) down, bring somebody up. But (O’Connor) has played pretty well for us. We’ve certainly had discussions about players down there. I think (forwards Valtteri) Puustinen and (Alex) Nylander have played extremely well. (Filip) Hallander has played well. (Forward Jonathan) Gruden, I think is out right now, but he’s played pretty well. So, we have options down there to bring up. And certainly, we’ve discussed it along the way and we’ll continue to keep an eye on it.”
• Hextall addressed his scuttling third and fourth lines. Should he be able to clear sufficient salary cap space, he is optimistic a potential recall could provide a boost to that segment of the roster.
“You look at our bottom-six (forwards) — I think a lot of people have alluded to it — for some reason, it hasn’t quite fit. The pieces haven’t fit. Part of the (Kapanen) thing — we’re not blaming (Kapanen) by any stretch of the imagination — but I think the pieces just haven’t fit. We’re trying to find pieces that fit. … We just try to give the coaches the options that we can give them. But we’re in a tight cap situation that we’re trying to rectify it here a little bit here. When you’re up against it, there’s only so many things you can do. Players get hurt, one guy goes on (long-term injured reserve) and everything changes. Unfortunately, it’s hard to plan for it. You certainly don’t want it to happen, but it does happen. You just need to have the pieces down below to come up and fill in. But like I said, maybe one of those guys at some point is a piece that helps the bottom-six (forwards).”
• Arguably Hextall’s most prominent addition to the team since he became general manager two years ago is forward Jeff Carter, who was acquired via trade at the 2021 trade deadline.
After signing a two-year contract extension last season, Carter largely has struggled this season. In 54 games, he has 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists) while clocking 14 minutes, 32 seconds of ice time per contest.
When asked, Hextall offered a measured assessment of Carter’s play this season:
“I think Jeff has done some good things,” Hextall said. “At times, he’s played well. There’s times where he can play better than he’s played. But he’s a big faceoff guy for us. He’s a penalty killer for us. He fills a role.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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