The Philadelphia Flyers’ season has not gone according to plan, and now someone has been forced to pay the price. The team announced today that they have fired General Manager Ron Hextall, and will begin a search immediately for his replacement. Team president Paul Holmgren will be leading that search, and released this statement about the decision to fire Hextall:
The Flyers organization has decided to relieve Ron Hextall of his duties as Executive Vice President and General Manager. We thank Ron for his many significant contributions, but it has become clear that we no longer share the same philosophical approach concerning the direction of the team. In light of these differences, we feel it’s in the organization’s best interests to make a change, effective immediately. I have already begun a process to identify and select our next General Manager, which we hope to complete as soon as possible.
Not very often in the NHL do you see a GM fired before his coach, which led to plenty of speculation around the hockey world that Hextall had either refused to fire Dave Hakstol or wanted to and was not allowed by upper management. It’s not clear yet how the whole situation played out, but there were obvious differences of opinion in the front office on where the team should be and how to get there. The Flyers were recently demolished by the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-0 but notably took zero penalties in the entire match. When paired with the crumbling powerplay and penalty kill of the Flyers, those even-strength struggles likely accelerated this decision, especially given the lofty expectations of the Flyers this season.
After showing well last year and taking the Pittsburgh Penguins to game six in the first round, the Flyers were hopeful that they would take another step forward and challenge for the Metropolitan Division title. Instead, they now sit seventh in the division at 10-11-2 and are in danger of falling too far behind the playoff pack entirely. With that in mind, it doesn’t come as a total surprise that they would make a big change.
Darren Dreger of TSN tweets that former Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher and former Carolina Hurricanes GM Ron Francis are early candidates to take over in Philadelphia. Both were recently pushed out of their respective situations but are well respected around the league.
Hmmm….Hextall goes but Hakstol doesn’t? Interesting, he’ll be gone once the season is over anyway and the new GM wants his own coach, but kinda strange Hextall got the boot before Hakstol did.
That decision will be made by the next gm. Hextall is gone because the Flyers have become a irrelevant franchise. It’s year 5,and we’re pretty much the same team that we were in year 1.It was also his choice to bring in the college coach,to teach our prospects how to play in the nhl.
And considering the mess the nhl team is,do you really believe a high enough % of his draft picks are gonna blossom into the roles he envisioned. Nhl prospects are even less predictable than MLB prospects.
Give him credit for taking advantage of the Coyotes losing money,and dumping Prongers insurance covered contract on them.Give him some more for the Kings/Lecavalier deal, but also don’t forget Lecavalier agreeing to retire and forgoing the remaining money he had on his deal.If Felix Sandstorm becomes a legit nhl goalie,then kudos to Hextall for the Hartnell/Umberger trade. But if not,we saved money that turned into Dale Weise.
The Schenn trade could turn into more of a disaster as well if Farabee and Frost don’t turn out to be much.
I actually forgot about that deal. Probably because of how little I’ve actually paid attention to this team.And hockey’s actually my favorite sport,and the Flyers are my favorite sports team overall.But the last 2 years I’ve barely paid any attention to them,because they’ve become a boring team.They were run like the pre-Josh Harris 6ers,never good enough to contend,never bad enough to get a top pick.We almost got lucky by getting that 2nd pick last year,but even that isn’t going that great.Probably has alot to do with Hextalls choice for a coach.
Gritty.
Hasktol should be next
Fired the wrong guy
Same old Flyers. #TrustTheProcess