Again, Hextall is a rebuild guy. He’s more interested in what’s going on in junior hockey than he is pro hockey. I think he’s been told to stand pat as much as possible - but start the process. They’ve admitted as much when he was hired. Everyone is going to hate the guy, because they think he’s “sleeping” when really he’s just doing the organization justice by not focusing on this pipe dream of more cups - at the expense of this organizations well-being 5-10 years down the road. Hextall knew he would be the bad guy before he even went into the interview. He’s good with it, so will you when we have a soft transition from the Crosby Era to whatever comes next. As opposed to something resembling the Pirates for a decade. Due to sending draft picks out the door to support 37 year old players.
I'm not gonna get into what the org wants from Hextall, either the org that hired him or the one currently employing him, as we don't know the truth.
But even if this is the aim -
He is doing a bad job. He's taken on and kept a lot of old guys with zero or negative value for the future and in doing so got rid of a number of younger guys with high ceilings for low returns.
He is also doing a bad job of keeping people believing now, which affects bottom line, which affects how long the team is willing to accept being bad which is what they really need to rebuild. Soft transitions don't acquire elite talent.
I really struggle to see a definition of his objectives where he hasn't screwed the pooch big time here.
