CRANBERRY TWP, PA (93.7 The Fan) – It’s the goal is every year, never a rebuild, it’s Stanley Cup or bust for the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is especially true after you re-sign a pair of your greatest players to long contracts. Does GM Ron Hextall think this team can now win the Stanley Cup after not winning a playoff series for four seasons?
“I think we made our team better today,” Hextall said. OK, that’s a start.
“I think there are a lot of teams capable of winning The Cup.” Again, encouraging but do you feel like the Penguins can win the Stanley Cup?
“Yes, I say we are one of them,” Hextall said Friday. “I think the number of teams with the chance of winning is greater than it used to be with the salary cap. The way teams are constructed now a days, I think a lot of teams loaded up. It will be interesting to see how those teams do. There are some good teams out there for sure.”
“We’ve got a proven group. We’ve got a hungry group and we got a group of guys that we all think of as winners. You got to make the playoffs first, that is our objective. We will see where we go from there, but I feel good about this team.”
Part of the reason he feels better about this team is they were able to augment their bottom six. He said that was important for them before the trade deadline on Friday. In their playoff runs, the Pens almost always had a player from the minors step up and make an impact. Judging recent play, forward Drew O’Connor could be that player.
“Drew has played extremely well,” Hextall said. “He’s played as good of hockey as he’s played. We are excited about Drew.”
O’Connor was sent back to the minors on Friday, but it is what they call a paper move. Something they had to do to get under the salary cap, but with the way they worked the trades, they have room to bring him back. The 24-year-old has goals in two of his last three games and points in three of his last four.
Hextall believes he’s also added to the team versatility bringing back Nick Bonino and adding Mikael Granlund.
“In terms of the centers, I like to supply the coaches with as many centers as possible,” Hextall said. “It’s hard to move guys that have played wing their whole life into the middle and expect them to do the job there. The addition of Nick, he’s played a lot of wing this year, but can also play the middle. He can kill penalties, take faceoffs. Mikael is a good penalty killer, he can play on the power play and all three positions.”
“It’s so hard for coaches, one guy goes down, how do you change your mix? The more options the coaches have the better. With those two guys, they have more options to put this thing together.”
Hextall said with goalie Tristan Jarry back healthy, he likes the look of his team. Even defensively, Hextall believes he gave Mike Sullivan help. Dmitry Kulikov is a veteran who shoots lefty, something they really don’t have after their starting three on that side. Plus Kulikov can play either side, is a heavy player and can kill penalties.
Hextall said it takes a couple of months to really know what type of team you have. When you figure out your areas of need you start to formulate talks about how you can improve it. He said prices were really high for most players until right before the deadline. Hextall added it’s difficult with so many teams in contention to make deals and said some prices actually went down. So much so they were able to change a couple of players.
Is it enough? That will probably determine if he’s making decisions for this organization next year.