CRANBERRY TWP, PA (93.7 The Fan) – Their fiercest rival for most of the Crosby-era, the Washington Capitals, are sellers. Pens GM Ron Hextall said on Friday, they won’t do that currently in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.
“Our intent is to make this team better this year and years beyond this year,” Hextall said. “We want to stay competitive. We made that commitment last summer with our core. Those guys have played well.”
Hextall said they are active, but one thing they won’t do. He says they have determined internally they will not spend ‘big assets’ on rental players. The third-year Pens general manager said if they spend a ‘big asset’ it will be for a player or players who will help them now and for years to come.
There is still belief in the organization that Kasperi Kapanen can still play, but they had to make that room to free up the cap space to activate defenseman Jan Rutta from injured reserve. They are still so much up against the cap, they can’t make a move to bring up a player from the minors. What they could do is send Drew O’Connor down and bring up a Alexander Nylander or Valtteri Puustinen, who they are impressed with, but they also like how O’Connor has played.
“You look at our bottom six,” Hextall said. “A lot of people have alluded to it. The pieces haven’t quite fit. Part of the Kappy thing, we are not blaming Kapanen by any imagination, the pieces just haven’t fit. We just try to give the coaches the options we can give them, but we are in a tight cap situation which we are trying to rectify a little bit here. When you are up against it, there’s only so many things you can do.”
A lot of attention on Jeff Carter, the former Stanley Cup champion seems a step slow and his hands not quite what they were. The 38-year-old has one goal, one point since January 8.
“I think Jeff has done some good things,” Hextall said. “I think at times he’s played well. I think there are times where he can play better than he’s played. He’s a big faceoff guy for us. A penalty killer for us and he fills a role.”
He believes this team can still make the playoffs as constructed. He admits the trade asks are high across the league, but says that can change as you approach the deadline on March 3.
“I guess the hardest part about our team right now is probably the volatility,” Hextall said. “It’s a tough one to put a finger on. I think we had that streak of 20 games where we were really good. We’ve had some six, seven games streaks where we weren’t good. Some nights we ask ourselves ‘what team are we’? We showed that we are capable of being a very good team and we are going to continue to make our team better this year and years ahead.”
Bad deals
Hextall said no general manager is going to bat 1.000 or be right on every transaction, you hope to make more good moves than bad. He also believes often we don’t know a players’ worth because stats don’t measure it.
“Players have more value to a team than the fans or people realize, whether its faceoffs or penalty kill or whatever it might be,” Hextall said. “I think there are different circumstances when you are building a team-how many pp-guys do we have? How many pk guys do we have? Do we have a left-shot center, a right-shot center?”
“There are a lot of things that go into it outside of looking at it on the periphery and saying this guy is not productive or not playing well enough. Everything doesn’t end the way you hope it will end too. We just try to make the decisions based on the information you have and hope they work out.”
The ‘Fire Hextall’ chants
Late in the second period of Thursday’s loss to Edmonton, fans started an impromptu ‘Fire Hextall’ chant that grew in strength and reoccurred a few more times.
“It doesn’t impact me at all,” Hextall said. “I understand the fans’ frustrations. We have high expectations as well and we haven’t met them. I totally get it. When you are a GM you know what you sign up for. We work in the public eye. People may good money to come to the rink and they certainly have the right to say what they choose. It’s not going to affect anything I do or don’t do. I’ve been in the league since I was 22. Criticism is part of the business, you have to handle it.”