PITTSBURGH — The worst kept secret in Pittsburgh sports was that Ron Hextall was on borrowed time as the Penguins general manager from about the trade deadline until the end of the season. The question was never if Hextall was going to get fired, it was always when.
Well, that day came Friday when Hextall, president of hockey operations Brian Burke and assistant general manager Chris Pryor were all fired.
This came a day after the season ended with the Penguins on the outside of the playoffs looking in for the first time since 2005-06. And it came a day after a most fitting of season-ending losses as the Penguins blew a third-period lead for the 10th time this season and lost to a terrible Columbus team.
Hextall was the key to the news, as he is the one who really impacted the roster. Most people, even some who are close to the organization, couldn't tell you what Burke actually did other than collect a paycheck, and he became less and less visible as the season wore on.
Pryor, I would assume, was just collateral damage of Hextall getting fired, as he was the assistant and unfortunately those guys usually get fired when their bosses do.
So the news of the day is really about Hextall, and quite frankly, he was never the right guy for the job. I have said that consistently since he was hired. He was the wrong man at the wrong time for the wrong team.
And no, not because of his deep ties as a player and executive with the Flyers. That has nothing to do it, although there are probably some good jokes that write themselves about the fact that they brought a guy from a losing organization and got what they deserved.
It is about his philosophy and his strengths as a general manager. He was a terrible fit for what the Penguins needed given the direction that they were going with their franchise.
Hextall did a pretty good job of rebuilding the Flyers' young talent base and turning them into a borderline playoff contender. His last full season was 2017-18, and that year the Penguins beat the Flyers, 4-2, in the first round of the playoffs.
The organization seemed to be on the rise, but the 2018-19 season began and the Flyers got off to a slow start and Hextall was fired. It was clear he was good at acquiring young talent, but not so good at building a team to take that next step.
That's why when the Penguins hired him, I assumed it was because the ownership group had made the decision to blow up the core of aging stars and start over. And Hextall would make a lot of sense because he acquired a lot of good young talent in Philadelphia, so maybe he could duplicate that in Pittsburgh.
But then they brought Burke on board, and that was the first thing that made very little sense. I assumed when they hired Burke — who admittedly is an old-school, play-big guy — it meant they were moving on from Mike Sullivan given his style is based on speed and skill.
All of my assumptions were wrong, as ownership kept Sullivan in place and made it clear Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin were not going anywhere.
In other words, the Penguins hired a "rebuilding specialist" general manager for a team that wasn't ever going to fully commit to rebuilding. They hired a director of hockey operations whose vision was building a team with a heavy and physical presence but kept a coach who wants a game based on speed and skill.
It made no sense then. It made less sense when we watched it all unfold. And it really just becomes flat out asinine when you look at it now.
The ownership group has made it clear it wants to maximize the window of its trio of stars. If that is the case, then the team needed to hire a general manager who was good at building an NHL team on the fly. This wasn't a three-year plan; it was a "we need to win now" plan. Hextall made some moves to get veteran players, but most of them, like Jeff Carter, blew up in his face.
He was reluctant to trade prospects or picks, and he was reluctant to make a bold move to get a better goalie. He was way too conservative for what the Penguins, as currently constituted, actually needed.
They didn't need a builder. They needed someone bold and creative and with a proven track of reloading a roster that already had a good core in place. Hextall wasn't and never will be that guy, and looking at what the Flyers became after he left, I am not sure he is even as good of a rebuilder as his reputation suggests.
Combine that with a president of operations who had a different philosophy from both the general manager and head coach, and it was not a shock at all that this organization operated like it had no plan or idea what it was trying to accomplish the last two years.
The Penguins have decided who they are and what they want to be in the near future. They want to be a team that is back in the playoffs next season and making at least one more run. They made it clear they are committed to Sullivan and his philosophy.
Right or wrong, if that is the direction they want to go, then they need to go all in on it and make sure their next front office choices — president and general manager — reflect that overall philosophy.
