Ron Hextall begins to shape the Penguins

If the Philadelphia Flyers are a franchise to model, that’s certainly up for debate, especially given their futility in winning the Stanley Cup for nearly half a century.

But what they are is a testament to building a competitive team through the draft.

Of the 23 players on their active roster on Saturday (including one player on injured reserve), 16 were acquired via the draft between 2006 and 2018 while two others were undrafted free agent signings.

The person largely responsible for identifying those players was Chris Pryor. During his nearly 20-years with the Flyers in a variety of roles ranging from amateur scout to assistant general manager, Pryor had a direct influence on the Flyers’ ability to find prospects who could reach the NHL. His last three seasons with that franchise came as assistant general manager, working under general manager Ron Hextall.

Today, Hextall is the general manager of the Penguins and not surprisingly, his first hire was to reunite with Pryor. On Saturday, he was named the Penguins’ director of player personnel. In that role, Pryor will oversee all scouting in North America and Europe and assist with all player personnel decisions.

He replaced Derek Clancey who had served in the role for parts of two seasons.

For Hextall, who joined the Penguins on Feb. 9, Pryor was someone he identified almost immediately to bring on staff.

“He was the number one priority for sure,” Hextall said via video conference. “We can sit with (assistant general manager Patrik Allvin), Chris, myself and (president of hockey operations Brian Burke) and do a full evaluation on the different areas of our staff. I don’t suspect we’ll be making any changes soon but those things can change based on availability of (potential additions). But right now, I’m extremely happy to have him on board.”

Under previous general managers Jim Rutherford and Ray Shero, the Penguins have been largely willing to part ways with future assets such as top prospects or even top draft picks in the name of “winning now.” And that approach has largely been justified by the three Stanley Cup banners the franchise has hanging to recognize success in 2009, 2016 and 2017.

At the same time, it has left the organization’s prospect pool desiccated. Only three members of the Penguins’ active roster were first-round picks selected by the team: Forwards Evgeni Malkin (2004), Sidney Crosby (2005) and Kasperi Kapanen.

A fourth ex-first-rounder – forward Sam Poulin (2019) – is currently playing in the junior ranks.

In contrast, the Flyers still have 11 former first-round picks either on their NHL roster or in their pipeline.

“We have to find that balance,” Hextall said. “First of all, credit to (previous general manager Jim Rutherford) and the two (Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017). Obviously, when that happens, at some point, your prospect pool is going to dry up. We need to replenish that for sure. It is a priority. But we also want to maintain the best possible team for today. We’ll kind of walk that fine line and make some decisions as we go along here. There’s going to be some tough ones for sure.”

As far as a baseline attribute Hextall and Pryor look for when considering adding a player, Hextall said they value one trait above all else:

“The number one thing that I like from all players, and Chris certainly does and our whole staff did, is – the word I like to use is will,” Hextall said. “So whether you’re a highly-skilled player or a role player, the word will, to compete on a nightly basis, to win one-on-one battles, to taking a hit to get a puck out, all those types of things that are important for playoff-type player … you’ve got to have guys that sacrifice. The word I like to use, once again, is will. It’s not necessarily a physical thing. But it’s ‘I’m going to win that battle, I’m going to get to the net, I’m going to put my nose down to get to the net and do everything I can to score a goal.’ That’s the one word I use.

“Obviously, when you’re building a team, you need many different types of pieces so you can’t just singularly be looking for just skill or just physical players or just defending defensemen. You need that nice balance of defending defensemen and offensive defensemen and two-way defensemen. The same thing up front. As I said, Chris has a great eye to talent and I look forward to working with him again.”

Hextall and Pryor were fired by the Flyers in November of 2018. For the past two seasons, Pryor has served as an amateur scout with the Nashville Predators. He has also served as an amateur scout and director of player development with the New York Islanders.

Clancey’s tenure with the Penguins comes to an end after 14 years. Originally hired in 2007 as a professional scout, Clancey also served as director of professional scouting before being promoted to director of player personnel. He was a member of the team’s three most recent Stanley Cup titles and even got his name engraved on the Stanley Cup in 2016 and 2017.

Hextall also offered an assessment of the team a little more than two weeks into his tenure:

“I’ve been impressed by a lot of things,” Hextall said. “The coaches run a terrific practice and I think all the players buy in. It’s a very, very high-tempo practice. It’s really important to practice at a high tempo because the game is at such a high tempo nowadays. We have so many games, we don’t get many practices. But when we do, it’s a high level so that’s the first thing that I like. In terms of the other side, I think the consistency, I’d like to see a little bit more consistency out of our group. It’s a tough season right now with so many games and so few days. But it’s something that you’ve got to battle every night. We can raise our level a little bit, our consistency level.”

Hextall was also asked if he would consider pursuing any players who could serve as a physical deterrent such as Capitals forward Tom Wilson, a long-time nemesis of the Penguins:

“I think every team in the league would like to have that type of player,” Hextall said. “There’s not a whole lot of them. And you’ve got a short roster size. It’s tough. If we could find someone to certainly play that role and give us a more physical element, we’d certainly look at it. But part of me is with Mike where if you make them play for those penalties, they’re going to think twice about taking the penalties. But in short, yes, if we could add someone like that, we’d like to.”

Notes: The Penguins activated forward Jared McCann from injured reserve. He opened Saturday’s road game against the New York Islanders on the second line. … Forward Anthony Angello was promoted from the taxi squad to the NHL roster and made his season debut on the fourth line. He replaced forward Drew O’Connor who was assigned to the taxi squad.