Hextall addresses future of the Big 3
GM sits down for a Q&A
Just over a month into Ron Hextall’s tenure with the Penguins, the new general manager is starting to see his team come together.
Kasperi Kapanen has “stepped up” to create good chemistry with Evgeni Malkin. “Sid is Sid.” The bottom- six is pitching in. Brian Dumoulin’s return from injury has allowed the coaching staff to manage the rest of the blue-liners’ minutes appropriately. The goaltending has been consistent.
“I really like the way our group is playing right now,” Hextall said of the Penguins, who are 11-4-0 since he and president of hockey operations Brian Burke were hired Feb. 9.
Now, if only they could get more goal scoring out of their netminders.
“I was joking with the coaches,” said Hextall, one night after Tristan Jarry’s attempt sailed just wide against the Buffalo Sabres. “I said, ‘It’s not that hard. Just put it in the net.’”
Of course, Hextall did make it look easy on Dec. 8, 1987, when he famously became the first NHL goalie to shoot the puck into an empty net. He repeated the feat again on April 11, 1989 in a Stanley Cup Playoff game.
“[Jarry’s shot] had a chance to go in if they didn’t get a glove on it,” Hextall said. “It was actually a pretty good shot.”
Maybe next time. Joking aside, now onto more serious hockey talk.
In an interview with the the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Hextall discussed the impossible-to-predict future of the Big Three (Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang), defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph’s place in the left-handed logjam, whether speed still kills in the NHL and more.
Note, some questions have been modified slightly to add context and some answers have been trimmed for space.
Q: The trade deadline is exactly one month from today. Are there particular areas to address before April 12?
A: I like where we’re at. Whether we can add a piece that will make a better team is yet to be known. You don’t know what’s out there. You don’t know what the prices are going to be. If there’s something that can make us better and not hurt us too much in the future, we’ll certainly look at it. If there’s a piece-for-a-piece that makes us a better team or a better fit, we’ll look at it. But whether I anticipate doing something or not, I can’t say right now.
We need to keep pushing. We have a lot of work to do. If in fact we’re in a position when Jason [Zucker] comes back that we’re in the playoffs, it would almost be like a trade-deadline addition.
Q: Does that mean you anticipate Zucker will return before the end of the regular season?
A: It’s a tough injury to gauge. I hope he’s back during the regular season. But it’s almost impossible to say right now.
Q: The Penguins appear to have a lot of candidates competing for three spots on the left side of the blue line. Mike Matheson ($4.875 million average annual value),
Brian Dumoulin ($4.1 million), Marcus Pettersson ($4.025 million) and Juuso Riikola ($1.15 million) are all signed through at least 2021-22. The club also just claimed righty Mark Friedman ($725,000) off waivers, who said he feels more comfortable on the left. And then there’s rookie Pierre-Olivier Joseph, who looks promising, yet could use some polishing.
Q: How do you view that situation?
A: P.O. obviously started out very well. I happened to watch the game against the Rangers, even before I got the job. I said “Wow.” I remembered the kid from the draft. He played a terrific game [tallying three assists in a top-pairing role].
As time went on, I think he lost some altitude, which showed that he wasn’t ready for full-time duty at the NHL level, which is why he is where he is right now. That’s not a criticism of the kid. I think he did a really good job for us and showed what he can be in the future for us. We’re excited about P.O., but one thing you don’t want to do is put players in situations they aren’t ready for and then they feel like they failed. Then, you can really stunt their development.
I don’t think there’s a hurry to clear a spot. The flat cap is going to be tough for a lot of teams, including us. We’re going to have to maneuver our way through that next year. That’s probably the bigger concern.
Q: Sticking with the blue line … Mobility seemed to be the main priority for the
“We need to keep pushing. We have a lot of work to do. If in fact we’re in a position when Jason [Zucker] comes back that we’re in the playoffs, it would almost be like a trade-deadline addition.”
— Ron Hextall, Penguins GM
previous regime. What is your idea of a prototypical defenseman?
A: You would love all your defensemen to be mobile and move the puck really well and this and that. But you do have to have different players that fit together. For example, when you look at [Dumoulin] and [Letang], they fit together well. Obviously, Tanger brings the offensive element and Dumo brings the opposite, the defensive element.
I look more for fits than I do necessarily types of players.
Q: Recent Penguins teams have been predicated on skill — and maybe even more so, speed. What’s your philosophy in terms of a style of play? Do you believe those are the elements that should be prioritized even as some of the stars get a little older?
A: Everybody likes speed. I like speed. You have to have a certain amount of bulk, too. The playoffs are a grind. There are teams that are going to take away your speed and you’re going to have to grind through the game, as well. There’s that fine balance between speed and heaviness, just to have the balance of all the elements of a team.
Q: Your predecessor, Jim Rutherford, was on the record as saying he preferred that the three core players — Crosby, Malkin and Letang — finish their careers where they started, here in Pittsburgh. What will be your approach?
A: That’s a hypothetical question that I can’t answer right now. They’ve obviously been terrific players for this franchise. In a perfect world, yeah, what Jimmy wants [would happen]. But I don’t know where this is going. It’s a hypothetical that quite frankly is not possible to answer.
Q: Speaking of those stars, how do you walk the line between maximizing the current window while also addressing a thin prospect pool and building for the future?
A: Make no mistakes, that’s going to be challenging. We want to be the best we can be right now. But we’ve also got to keep an eye on the future... There’s going to be some tough decisions to make here.
Q: What will be your approach to building? Rutherford gave up assets to win now. Others may prefer to build through the draft.
A: There’s no real shortcuts. The draft is typically the way most teams get their core players. That’s how I anticipate things going here.