Flyers needed ‘different mindset’

Holmgren meets media day after GM Hextall fired

PHILADELPHIA •Thetime had come for change.

The Philadelphia Flyers feel they need a new look and a new direction.

Hours before the Flyers faced the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center, club president Paul Holmgren and Comcast Spectacor CEO Dave Scott met with the local media to explain the decision to fire general manager Ron Hextall a day earlier.

The Flyers aren’t happy with where they sit a quarter of the way through the season and felt Hextall wasn’t going to be the man to help them take the next step. Hextall had a plan in place and had been given five years to execute it, but ultimately he lost his job because he refused to deviate from his direction.

Hextall was lauded for clearing cap space and setting the team up well, but that’s the only praise he received.

“I got to the point I felt it was the necessary to push our team forward to have a different mindset in that chair,” Holmgren told reporters at the Wells Fargo Center. “Are there things (Hextall) was thinking about doing for the team? I don’t know; he was unyielding in his plan and remained that way.

“Good for him. He’s a well thought out, deep-thinking guy and he put us in a better position moving forward.”

Added Scott: “He was very confident in his plan and his vision and Paul said it, he wasn’t going to waver from that plan, but to me and to Paul, this is the fifth year and you guys look at the same data we look at and we thought it was time for a change.

There has been no shortage of names as possible replacements. Former Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher is a top candidate along with ex-carolina Hurricanes GM Ron Francis, who is close with Holmgren from their days with Hartford Whalers. Florida Panthers executive Chris Pronger, a former Flyers defenceman, also has been mentioned.

The Flyers don’t want to hurry the process, but they’re not going to waste time, either, and Holmgren insisted he’s had no shortage of interest. Scott added they hoped to have a replacement in “weeks not months.”

The future of coach Dave Hakstol is now clouded, though Holmgren denied with Hextall about the possibility of a change behind the bench.

Dave Hakstol