Penguins, Ron Hextall Getting Left Behind as East Rivals Continue to Load Up

The Pittsburgh Penguins have a problem as the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline approaches.

A lot of problems, actually.

Their bottom six is lacking in talent and production, their defensive play has fallen apart in recent weeks and their goaltending has been held back by injuries and inconsistency for the third year in a row. That duo of Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith has been the biggest reason they did not advance out of the first round in the past two years, and they continue to stick with it. All of that together has dropped them to Eastern Conference playoff bubble where they are now in a fight just to try and steal a Wild Card spot.

All of those problems trace back to a single source.

That source is general manager Ron Hextall, who has fallen into the same trap of inactivity and patience that ultimately doomed his tenure with the Philadelphia Flyers. When the Flyers fired Hextall back in 2018 ownership said they were looking for a general manager that had a "bias for action," a clear shot at Hextall's methodical and slow building process. He didn't make many trades, didn't make many free agent signings and didn't like trading future assets, all of that left the Flyers in a rut of mediocrity.

Five years later across the state of Pennsylvania, that same thing is playing out as Hextall has been slow to address any of the Penguins' growing flaws, especially as the competitors around him continue to load up.

The New York Islanders have already added Bo Horvat to give them another scorer.

The New York Rangers have brought in Vladimir Tarasenko and Tyler Motte, and seem to be closing in on a Patrick Kane addition.

Toronto brought in Ryan O'Reilly and Noel Acciari from the St. Louis Blues to bolster its forward depth and give it one of the best collections of centers in the NHL.

Boston added Dmitry Orlov to an already outstanding defense, and even though Washington appeared to be selling with that deal it is rumored to be interested in potentially adding Jakob Chychrun from the Arizona Coyotes.

New Jersey, Carolina and especially Buffalo all have the salary cap space to add a major piece (or two) before the March 3 trade deadline, and it seems likely that several of them will.

Hextall and the Penguins?

Complete silence.

There are two significant factors working against Hextall and the Penguins when it comes to making a move. One is a problem that Hextall inherited, and the other is one of his own creation.

When it comes to the former, the Penguins' farm system and prospect pool is one of the thinnest in the NHL, largely the result of a consistently all-in approach that saw them consistently trade prospects and draft picks under previous general manager Jim Rutherford. That is not necessarily a criticism of Rutherford because it was really the only approach to take. When you have Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang on your roster you are always going to be a buyer and looking to add to the roster.

But it has definitely depleted their tradable assets now.

Even that is not an insurmountable obstacle because they still have a mostly full cupboard of draft picks to deal from. But Hextall has been reluctant to deal future first-round picks, and if you have a thin farm system and do not want to deal your draft picks, you probably are going to have a hard time making a deal.

Especially when salary cap space is as limited as it is for the Penguins.

That is the second problem facing Hextall, and that is one that has been entirely his doing.

The most mind-blowing part of the Penguins' roster and salary cap issues is that Hextall has his four best players—Crosby, Malkin, Letang and Jake Guentzel—all signed for a salary cap hit of less than $28 million. He does not have a single player on the team counting more than $8.7 million against the cap, and one player that makes more than $6.8 million against the cap.

Getting four All-Star level players signed to contracts that cheap should be a massive advantage in building a roster around them.

Instead, Hextall has completely squandered that and not only built a badly flawed roster, but he also has put himself in a position where he does not have the salary cap flexibility to even attempt to fix it.

The most damning indictment of his roster construction came on Friday when he had to waive forward Kasperi Kapanen, just eight months after signing him to a two-year contract extension worth more than $3 million per season, just to create some salary cap flexibility. That flexibility is not going toward a trade upgrade, either. It was so they could remove veteran defenseman Jan Rutta from the LTIR and activate him back onto the active roster.

Rutta has turned out to be another ill-advised signing by Hextall over the past year.

Instead of building a competent roster around his stars, Hextall has spent the past two years making a series of small overpayments that have added up into major headaches.

Even with those issues, there are ways around that for creative general managers. Retained salary, bringing in a third team to funnel a contract through to retain even more salary and increased utilization of the long-term injured list and other loopholes. Every year we see teams like Tampa Bay, Vegas and Toronto that are pressed against the salary cap still find ways to make significant moves.

Boston had a similar amount of salary cap space as the Penguins when it added Orlov on Thursday.

There are always ways to get the player you want or need. But it takes a general manager with a vision, a plan and the willingness to do it. Hextall has never shown himself to be that type of general manager in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.

If that does not change over the next week, the Penguins will be a risk of falling further behind in the Eastern Conference playoff race as everybody around them continues to find ways to load up. That could put an end to the Penguins' playoff streak, which is currently the longest active playoff streak in North American professional sports at 16 consecutive seasons.

It is understandable if Hextall does not want to spend good assets on a rental for this particular team given its many flaws. It is probably more than one player away from competing this season, anyway. But there are ways for him to get involved for the likes of Chychrun, Timo Meier, Adam Henrique or any other player with term remaining on their contract that are available and could help them this season and in future seasons.