Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Hextall may dip into vault for free agency
The chains are off. The ghosts of July 1’s past have been vanquished. The Scrooge side of Ron Hextall’s general managing personality has seen the light ... or at least has brightened from humbug to hopeful.
“We’d like to get better,” Hextall said at a pre-NHL Draft media availability Thursday, “but we’re not going to do something stupid that’s long-term to try to get better. But one or two years, yeah, we’d like to get better (that way). Yeah, absolutely. That’s my responsiblity, so I’d like to get better. But we’ll see what comes.”
OK, so he’s not going all Bob Clarke or Paul Holmgren when it comes to preparing for the opening of the free agency season at the First of July. But for the first time since the overwhelming joy brought forth by the signings of Dale Weise and Boyd Gordon two years ago, Flyers fans can look forward to a little summery excitement. Isn’t that right, Ron? “If the fit’s right, if the term is and it works out cap-wise long-term, and all that stuff, yeah, absolutely,” Hextall said. “We look at everything. We’re trying to get better for today without sacrificing. It would be easy to make a deal to make us better — there’s lots of young assets teams are frothing at the mouth. So we could do that, sacrifice a lot of our future. But that’s not going to happen.”
And in normal years, free agency thrills aren’t going to happen, either, which brings us back to Weise and Gordon, who represent a July 1, 2016 to forget. But Hextall was rarely a big player in July. He did sign Brian Elliott last July 1, and if he hadn’t, the Flyers would have been major players in the draft lottery yet again this year.
Unlike Hextall, predecessor Paul Holmgren usually liked to play along with the supermarket sweepstakes nature of the July opening. His biggest free agency prize was Vinny Lecavalier in 2013, which turned out to be a huge bust. But it wasn’t as big of a botch job as the late June sign and trade deal that landed Ilya Bryzgalov in 2011.
They’re still paying that goalie clown.
What took place in 2012 wasn’t memorable either, as Holmgren pursued both Ryan Suter and Zach Parise, not knowing both would be targeted by themselves to go to Minnesota. While waiting through the chase, Holmgren lost the chance to re-sign Jaromir Jagr, who in 2011 had been a steal.
Good thing, considering that with the exception of 2007’s landmark signing of Danny Briere and perhaps the 2009 signing of Ian Laperriere, Holmgren had more free agency misses than hits.
For example, he had signed goalie Ray Emery in 2009, and again in 2013, along with defenseman Mark Streit and Lecavalier that year. One outta three ain’t bad.
There was little fanfare in 2014 as Emery (again and again!) was re-signed to a one-year deal as a backup goalie, and Rob Zepp was signed as a minor league goalie. Then in 2015, there came defenseman Michael Del Zotto, who wasn’t signed until August but was better than advertised. But there was Michal Neuvirth in 2015, who somehow is still here despite living on the injury list. As for whether he’s healthy right now or not ... does it even matter anymore?
Enough with the history lesson. The future is now ... or at least 2½ weeks from now.
Old news: Ron Hextall isn’t going to mortgage the assets he’s built through the drafts in recent years.
Not-so-fake news: He finally thinks it’s time to supplement those young players with a good quality center and defenseman either through the opening of free agency or via a trade.
He’s a big believer in character, which makes the talk that he’s interested in Russian defenseman Slava Voynov a little hard to believe. But after serving time in the KHL — where he literally was cast off to by Hextall and other members of the Los Angeles Kings front office in 2015 after he’d served two months in jail for “corporal injury to a spouse with great bodily injury” — Voynov is a talented defenseman who can come cheap as an unrestricted free agent. That’s if his criminal record is expunged in court and the league allows him re-entry via free agency.
So what’s Hextall think of his old Russian defenseman who was rightly declared an outcast nearly three years ago?
“He’s another team’s property,” Hextall said. Oh. On the forward side the speculation is less ugly, as the Flyers are said to be preparing to do some bidding on center Paul Stastny. Yes, he made about $7 million last year in St. Louis and Winnipeg, and for that scored just 16 goals and 53 points. But he was very good in the Jets’ playoff run to the Western Conference finals, averaging nearly a point a game.
It would have to be a short-term agreement, though, as Hextall — already worrying about re-signing young stars Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny next season — said, “We’re certainly not going to reach out on a seven-year deal to a good player.”
Two or even three years at perhaps a bit of an inflated price, though?
“We’d love to add a top player, whether through free agency or trade,” Hextall said. “We’ll try. If we can’t we can’t, and we’ll move forward.”
*** Hextall said he has no interest in free agent Ilya Kovalchuk, and his disdain for long-term deals leaves him out of the market for potential top free agents John Carlson and John Tavares too. ... The Flyers own the 14th and 19th picks, and Hextall was asked if he sees them making a trade to move up in the draft. “I anticipate making our picks,” he said. “Certainly we would move up if the right deal were there and we’d look at moving back if the right deal were there, too. It’s really hard to project.” ... Hextall said most post-season surgery Flyers are on track or ahead in their recoveries. That goes for forward Wayne Simmonds, who underwent core muscle surgery. Hextall said he’s confident Simmonds will bounce back.