The Pittsburgh Penguins have many issues, but at least one could have been avoided if Ron Hextall didn't mismanage.
It’s not hard to see that Kasperi Kapanen and the Pittsburgh Penguins haven’t worked out together.
Kapanen’s first season back with the Penguins organization was pretty solid; he had 30 points in 40 games, but things just haven’t been the same since.
The 2021-22 season wasn’t great for Kapanen as he only put up 32 points (11G-21A) in 79 games.
Inexplicably, general manager Ron Hextall rewarded Kapanen with a two-year contract extension worth $3.2 million against the cap.
Hextall said at the time that he believed Kapanen could turn his game around and find a new level.
That hasn’t happened at all as he’s only been able to muster 20 points (7G-13A) in 43 games while at times being a healthy scratch from the lineup.
Thanks to other roster mismanagements, the Penguins were forced to fire Kapanen through waivers.
Why did it have to come to this? Because Hextall failed the Penguins in more ways than one.
In 2021-22, Kapanen was healthy scratched on multiple occasions by head coach Mike Sullivan because he was completely unable to produce.
Kapanen remained healthy in a year where nobody seemed to, but he still missed time because of his skill level.
Guys like Danton Heinen and Evan Rodrigues were outperforming Kapanen.
Not only did Hextall give Kapanen a new contract, it was for multiple years and no pay cut was involved.
The writing was on the wall that Kapanen couldn’t produce. Everyone saw it first hand for a whole season, yet he was rewarded with two more seasons.
For a team as cap strapped as the Penguins are, the inflated number was more than confusing.
Heinen came back with a one-year $1 million contract, but Rodrigues was allowed to walk to free agency.
When asked about the Kapanen situation, Hextall referred to his 2020-21 season, which was two years ago.
“I think it was two years ago, Kap had 30 points in 40 games, and looking like he was a pretty good player,” Hextall said. “The feeling was last year was a bit of a down year, and that he would bounce back.”
Well, Kapanen hasn’t bounced back and things look worse than they did before.
Sullivan said that everyone is to blame for not getting the best out of Kapanen during his time in Pittsburgh.
Kapanen never should have been given more time in Pittsburgh in the first place, and the blame falls squarely on Hextall.
It was revealed that Hextall had sent a note to teams that Kapanen was available for a trade, but 24 hours later he was dropped on waivers, just seven months after extending him for two entire seasons.
Gross roster mismanagement from Hextall, no other way of putting it.
The St. Louis Blues have stepped up and taken Kapanen off of Hextall's hands, meaning he is no longer the Penguins issue.
That doesn't take away from the poor decision making on Hextall's part.
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