After his 100th win with the Pittsburgh Penguins, it's a good time to give Ron Hextall a grade on his performance.
The overtime victory over the Anaheim Ducks wasn’t just a huge win for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but it was Ron Hextall’s 100th victory as the teams’ general manager.
In just 170 games in the Penguins’ front office, Hextall became the fastest GM in franchise history to hit 100 wins.
While the team as a whole flounder around looking for more consistent answers, a lot of Hextall’s decision making has been getting called into question.
That’s completely fair; after all, the Penguins are in desperate need of a change in their lineup and Hextall has been sitting on his hands.
Jeff Carter hasn’t done much for the team this year and he wouldn’t be in Pittsburgh had it not been for Hextall.
With Hextall hitting the 100-win millstone in Pittsburgh, let’s take a look and grade his performance to this point.
It’s been almost exactly two years since Jim Rutherford jumped ship and Hextall was hired as general manager in Pittsburgh and some of his first moves were positive.
Signing Mark Friedman off of waivers and the early portions of Carter’s tenure with the Penguins showed positive results.
Remember when Carter scored four goals in the same game? Carter wasn’t a bad trade piece originally.
It’s been the way Carter has been handled ever since that pulls back; Hextall acquired Carter, but then promptly protected him from the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft and signed him to a two-year contract.
Speaking of the Expansion Draft, Hextall hasn’t gotten great reviews for his handling of that situation.
The Penguins traded away Jared McCann before the protection lists were due and followed that up by losing Brandon Tanev to Seattle.
While McCann’s current numbers wouldn’t be the same if he were still in Pittsburgh, he would at least be a step better than Carter.
Hextall followed the Expansion Draft by signing Brock McGinn and and Danton Heinen during free agency.
Not a bad return originally, but Heinen has completely fallen off the map as a usable piece.
The calendar year of 2022 was a general positive one for Hextall; he traded for Rickard Rakell at the deadline and got him a new six-year contract.
Mike Matheson and John Marino were traded away for net positive blue liners in Jeff Petry and Ty Smith.
Then came one of the most important summers in Penguins history; Hextall was tasked with penning new deals for Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Bryan Rust.
Hextall succeeded with contracts to keep the core in tact and a team-friendly deal for Rust.
After a handful of other additions and re-signings through free agency the Penguins entered the 2022-23 season and entered the ‘what have you done for me lately’ phase of Hextall’s time in Pittsburgh.
What has he done lately? Well… nothing. And that might be a huge problem.
One of Hextall’s biggest criticisms from his time as GM for the Philadelphia Flyers was his tendency to sit on his hands and hesitate to make important changes.
Like mentioned before, the Penguins need a move and one that’s more than a minor league recall.
The Penguins need a boost in the bottom six because the guys Hextall brought in aren’t panning out.
Carter has lost his scoring tough, same with McGinn, Heinen is a non-option, and Kasperi Kapanen is regularly getting healthy scratched.
While Kapanen is a product of the Rutherford era, it was Hextall who saw Kapanen’s brutal 2021-22 and still gave him a two-year contract.
The Penguins need a move and need it quick, their playoff streak is on the line and Hextall needs to be the man forcing the situation.
With everything put into consideration, it’s safe to give Hextall a high-C grade.
Hextall's done good things for the team that will continue to pay off in their own way, but he needs to do something to push the team over the edge.
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