Here's a look at Hextall's moves with Philly.
History of hockey trades by general manager Ron Hextall - NHL Trade Tracker
Hartnell for Umberger + 4th rounder. Not long after Hartnell wasn't able to skate well enough to keep up with the rest of the league. Timing on this trade was perfect. Must have been a hard trade to make because Hartnell was clearly a fan favourite.
Tye McGinn for a 3rd rounder. Great return for a guy who barely played 60 more games in the NHL after getting traded.
Timonen for 2nd + conditional 4th. Not a bad trade for a D-man who was long in the tooth.
Braydon Coburn for 1st rounder + 3rd rounder + Gudas. Again another good trade. Got a 1st rounder, a mid rounder and a warm body that's always up for punching faces and cleared some cap space while they were at it.
Chris Pronger and Nicklass Grossman for Sam Gagner + 3rd or 4th round pick. Took a chance on Gagner and got a mid rounder and all he had to do was give up a star who would never play in the NHL again and a d-man who washed out out of the league soon after the trade.
Lecavier + Luke Schenn for Jordan Weal and 3rd rounder. Cleared 2 contracts that turned out to be toxic and L.A probably regrets taking them on and he got a 4th line scrub and a 3rd rounder in return. At this point I'm thinking Hextall's cap management skills are up there with Sather's in the 90's when he was still with us.
Philly's 1st + 3rd for Jet's 1st + 2nd. Jets moved up to draft someone who is 20 and hasn't had a chance to prove his worth yet and Philly later on drafted someone in the same situation. They're both in the AHL and they don't look like bums statistically but I don't know anything about them.
Mark Streit for Filppula + 4th. Streit never played useful hockey again. Was traded to Tampa but he never played a game for them. Was then pawned off to the Penguins and the following season he played 2 games with the Habs. Philly picks up a mid rounder while paying Filppula 5M per year for 2 years to put up points on pace with a decent 3rd line forward. This is looking like his worst move so far, but it didn't put the team back years like what we're used to here in Edmonton.
Brayden Schenn for Jori Legtera a 1st and another conditional 1st. Philly got frustrated with Schenn's offensive production and paid for it as Schenn's numbers improved the instant he landed in St. Louis. 1st rounders are nice. Legtera belongs in the AHL.
There are a few more, but they're even more minor moves. Overall, I like how he does business. I don't want to get people's hopes up thinking that he'd find a way to get someone to eat Lucic's contract but given his short track record if anyone could do it he just might be the guy.
Hartnell, Pronger, Lecavier and Luke Schenn were flat out toxic contracts when he traded them and Philly came out of those trades smelling like a rose.