Penguins GM Ron Hextall: 'If we go into the next season with this group, we’re comfortable'

As a goaltender with the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1980s and 1990s, Ron Hextall was often furious. If you dared cross him or a teammate, he would unleash something ferocious upon you, usually in the form of a slash to the ankle or a punch to the face.

As a general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2021, Hextall seems anything but furious, at least publicly, in the aftermath of his team’s underwhelming first-round exit at the hands of the New York Islanders.

Making his first public comments Wednesday, a week after his team was eliminated, Hextall was very calculated if not contemplative.

Unlike his predecessor, Jim Rutherford, who pilloried his roster by outright questioning the desire or drive of players following opening-round losses in 2019 and ’20, Hextall expressed quite a bit of satisfaction with a team that won the East Division during the regular season but only could claim victory in two postseason contests.

“Liked a lot of the things from our team this year,” Hextall said via video conference. “Our resiliency, through a lot of injuries — I think we had five of our top nine forwards out at the same time — and our guys battled through. There were times, I know a lot of people had us dead to rights because of our lineup. We found a way to win. There’s a special drive to this group and a chemistry that we like. We do believe that we’ll do everything we can to get better this summer at every position. We’ll see what comes our way.

“Our goal next year is to come back and to make the playoffs and hopefully go on a run.”

How the Penguins accomplish that endeavor remains to be seen as they have some considerable challenges to deal with this offseason. Namely, how do they manage their roster with an expansion draft for the Seattle Kraken franchise while also trying to remain compliant with the NHL’s flat salary cap figure of $81.5 million?

Hextall addressed those issues as well as a number of other subjects Wednesday.

• First and foremost, Hextall offered a hearty endorsement of beleaguered starting goaltender Tristan Jarry.

In six games this postseason, Jarry had a bloated 3.18 goals-against average and a wretched .888 save percentage. A puck-handling error in the second overtime period of Game 5 led to the winning goal by Islanders forward Josh Bailey, and Jarry simply looked overwhelmed during Game 6 as he allowed five goals on 24 shots.

Regardless, Hextall professed confidence in the 26-year-old.

“We do feel like Tristan did a good job for us this year,” Hextall said. “From the time that (president of hockey operations Brian Burke) and I came in mid-February there to the end of the year, we had very good goaltending from both guys (including backup Casey DeSmith). Obviously, we saw what happened in Game 5, an unfortunate error there. And then Game 6 wasn’t the best. But I think we wouldn’t have been where we were without Tristan.

• A 13-year veteran as an All-Star goaltender in the NHL, Hextall offered perspective on Jarry’s career following his first season as a full-time starter:

“We all have to remember, Tristan is a young player,” Hextall said. “He’s going to learn from this, and he’s going to come back better in September. We all learn lessons in life. If you’re going to be a goaltender in this league for a long time, you’re going to have your ups and downs as pretty much every guy does. You learn from it, and you get better. We’re confident that Tristan is going to get better.”

• Hextall lauded the coaching staff but stopped short of saying if it would return intact going into the 2021-22 campaign:

“We were very pleased with our coaching staff,” Hextall said. “Having five of your top nine forwards out and continuing to find ways to win is hats off to the coaches and certainly to the players. It was a tough year. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the challenges with (covid-19). Our entire staff, not just the players and the coaches, but our entire staff I think did a terrific job. … It was a challenging year for everybody. The way we lost in the playoffs obviously leaves a sour taste in your mouth. But there were a lot of positives that happened this year for our club and for the organization.”

• The future of the “core” — i.e. forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang — appears to be safe going into next season, though Hextall declined to get into specifics when asked about potential contract extensions for Malkin and Letang, each of whom are entering the final year of their current deals:

“Those are discussions that are certainly ongoing within our staff,” Hextall said. “I’m not necessarily eager to discuss them right now. But we see a future with this core. These guys have been here a long time. We had a good year. It certainly didn’t give me pause to think, ‘What we should do with this core?’ I think we were fifth in the league (overall). Most of our goals against, goals for, all those types of numbers were good. So it wasn’t a fluke. I expect to have these guys back next year for sure.”

• Hextall acknowledged the realities of the expansion draft and the flat salary cap but did not offer many specifics:

“They’re going to be big factors for sure,” Hextall said. “Trying to figure out what’s going to happen in expansion is a tough thing. We don’t have our list finalized yet and, obviously, I wouldn’t necessarily share that (with media) anyway. But we’ve got ideas on it. What Seattle will do, I don’t have a real good idea and probably won’t until it actually happens. The flat cap is going to be a challenge for us for sure. (Forwards Teddy Blueger and Zach Aston-Reese) are restricted free agents, and (we are) trying to project those numbers. We’ve got some work to do here for sure, and we’ve got our challenges.”

• Unlike in the 2017 expansion draft when the Penguins, under Rutherford, reached an agreement with the Vegas Golden Knights to select goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury by trading a 2020 second-round pick to Vegas, Hextall suggested the Penguins will not steer the Kraken to any incumbent players on their roster by offering any future assets.

“We’re going to probably lose a pretty good player,” Hextall said. “Rather than give up a couple of assets to try to keep, I think we’ll probably lose a pretty good player. I’m speculating there, obviously. Who knows what will come along? But right at this point, I’d say we’ll just lose a player.”

• Hextall was asked if there was a difference in what kind of roster is necessary for success in the regular season compared to the postseason:

“It’s something to think about right now. The standard, I think, has gone up in terms of what is and what isn’t a penalty since the playoffs started. It’s something that you can’t just ignore. The biggest thing in the playoffs is you’ve got to have a team that’s willing to play through. There’s going to be teams that want to play physical and run you because they feel like that’s the only way they can beat you. You’ve got to have players that are willing to play through that. Quite honestly, I think we showed that in the first round, that we have a lot of players that are willing to play through the hard stuff, the hooks and the holds and the interference and the hits, guys leaning on you. So for the most part, I thought we did pretty good. It’s a fair question. If we can add a little bit of size to help with that, we would.”

• Averaging 6-foot-1 and 194 pounds, the Penguins had the second-smallest roster of any team in the postseason season this spring. Hextall spoke to a desire of adding some size or toughness to his NHL roster:

“The standard for a player to be able to play in your top-12 forwards has gone way up. So there’s not a lot of guys that have enough skill, skate well enough and also bring that other element. So there’s just not a lot of it around. It is in demand. The (teams) that have those top guys are certainly not going to part with them. It’s a tough thing to find. If we can find it and the price is reasonable and we can fit it in our cap, we’ll certainly do it. But as I said, we’re comfortable with our team. We had a real good regular season and played well in the playoffs. Again, that doesn’t mean we won’t look to get better. We always look to get better. If we can find ways to tweak things and get better, we will.

“Would we like to have a little bit of size? Of course, we’d like to add a little bit of size. A little bit of toughness? Yes. It would be nice. But there’s not a lot out there. We’ll look at what’s there this summer, we’ll make adjustments. But if we go into the next season with this group, we’re comfortable.”

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