If you were hoping Penguins General Manager Ron Hextall would launch into any kind of a rant vowing to make major changes after another first round loss to the Islanders, you will be disappointed. In fact, unless Hextall is playing it incredibly close to the vest, we may not see many changes at all – other than the ones that cannot be avoided
After taking a week to reflect, Hextall said what most of us have been saying since the Pens lost game 6 to the Islanders – he felt they played well enough to win. You know, except for the goalie. Yet, maybe as a former goaltender himself, Hextall says he's not completely down on Tristan Jarry
"Tristan did a good job for us from the time Burkie and I came in, "Hextall began in his season-ending Webex news conference. "Obviously, (we) saw what happened in Game 5, unfortunate error there, and Game 6 wasn't the best but we wouldn't have been where we were without Tristan."
"We all have to remember that Tristan is a young player," Hextall continued, "he's going to learn from this and come back better in September. If you're going to be a goaltender in this league for a long time you're going to have your ups and downs and you learn from it and get better.
We're confident Tristan is going to get better."
Of course, that's something Jarry can't prove until next season and, really, not until the post-season. But it sounds as he will be given that chance.
Otherwise, Hextall couldn't find much fault. "We've got a really good team. We're excited about our group," the GM declared. "Sid, Tanger, Geno they're not in their 20s any more but bringing Jeff Carter in and having a deep team is important. We've got a hard-working team, a skilled team, we've got a fast team. Of course, we'd like to add a little bit of size, a little bit of toughness, that'd be nice but there's not a lot out there and if we go into next season with this group we're comfortable."
"There's a special drive to this group and a chemistry that we like and we do believe that we'll do everything to get better this summer at every position," Hextall concluded, saying they continue to be in a "win now" mode.
After Mike Sullivan was forced to make changes after last season, it appears that won't be the case this time. "We were very pleased with our coaching staff," said Hextall pointing out how the coaches kept things together despite a rash of injuries, not to mention playing through a pandemic.
Hextall wouldn't discuss any potential contract talks or trades involving Evgeni Malkin and/or Kris Letang who are heading in final year of their contracts then added, "I expect to have those guys back next year for sure."
There will be at least one player Hextall will not keep because of the expansion draft. He says they have not yet finalized their protected list but says they will probably lose "a pretty good player," but says they won't give up any assets – i.e. draft picks – to try to manipulate which player Seattle chooses.
Hextall says that they continue to be in "win now" mode and insists that he and Sullivan are on the same page.
