On the eve if free agency, the Flyers remain cap strapped.
Here's a review of what GM Ron Hextall and club president Paul Holmgren had to say over the weekend after the NHL Draft:
Transcripts courtesy of the Flyers:
HEXTALL
What did you see from today’s part of the draft?
"Well, I think it was a decent draft. There were still some names on the table that we liked when it was over. There’s some depth, but as we all know, once you get into the later rounds it’s a crapshoot. There were some things we saw on the guys that we picked.
Did you think you would be moving around at all in this draft?
"Somebody else has got to be willing to move. A lot of teams try to get up. And teams say yeah, we’ll move back, but then they want the king’s ransom. You’ve got to judge every conversation you have and if something makes sense, then you do it, but if you don’t… you can’t move up or do something that you don’t want to do and overpay. It’s a feel, and if you feel you got the right deal, you do it, and if you don’t, you don’t. We got some good young prospects.
On drafting a player from the same team as Travis Sanheim
"That’s a total coincidence there. He’s a Russian kid playing in North America, [so] it gives you a little bit of a comfort level that he’s going to [stay here] and play.
On whether they intentionally drafted a lot of defensemen.
"No, it’s more the way it fell. We certainly weren’t going to draft all defensemen, but it is the way the draft fell for us. We got forwards that we’re happy with, and there’s a nice balance. I gotta tell you, I’m a little disappointed we didn’t get a goalie. They just didn’t fall where we hoped they would be.
Were you surprised there was a run on them?
"Usually when that happens, it happens like that. As soon as the first goalie went, all of a sudden people get a little hungrier for guys. So not necessarily.
Is there anyone in the middle or late rounds that you’re intrigued with?
"Well, we’re intrigued with them all or we wouldn’t have picked them. There was one kid who got picked four picks ahead of us that we really wanted.
Was [Pettersson] a shot in the dark?
"We were all over at World Juniors and you see this little Swedish kid out there and he’s playing hard and hitting, he’s a really good player. Really feisty. So I said to one of our guys, jeez, he’s a pretty good player. And he said yeah, I’ve been saying that for three years, and he’s been through two drafts. He’s a gritty, hard-nosed, honest player. He’s 20 years old. We like him.
What was his supposed liability?
"Five-foot-nine. He’s a wide body. When you look at a lot of the smaller guys, you look for some girth, and he’s got girth.
The second round pick?
"Competitive, speed. He’s a winger. Got some good hands. We think he’s got some upside. Speed factor certainly was talked about.
On the future
"Things turn over quick. You can never have enough players at all positions. There’s a bit of an imbalance right now with our reserve list. We’ve got our young forwards, most of them are on our team, [but] our young defensemen, most of them are still out. But they’re going to come together with the young forwards, and now we have to kind of come underneath and bring some young forwards along.
On Friedman being a college player with an extra year to decide on signing him
"Well, it doesn’t hurt. College guys, you never know if they’re going to come out early or play the four years. It does give you a bit moreinthan the standard two years. I never let that influence whether we pick a guy or not, but it’s a nice little kind of a sideline that could help.
Has the decision been made to qualify Akeson?
"Yeah, we’ll qualify him. I think we have to. It was never a question mark there.
On Lecavalier
"I’m going to repeat it again – it’s an internal issue. If I have something to report I will. Otherwise Vinny will be with us in September. I didn’t expect anything to happen.
On qualifying McGinn and Heeter
"We’ve got a deadline coming up here, so we’ve got to talk. McGinn will be qualified for sure. Heeter we’ve got to talk about.
Have you talked to any potential free agents?
"We’ve reached out. We haven’t met with anybody.
Are you looking for anything this week?
"First on my agenda right now is to go back to Skate Zone and take a look at our cap. We have the hard number now, so we’ve got to look at it and see where we can try to maneuver.
Were you surprised with that number and does it affect you?
"Yeah, it affects every team that’s close. It affects us for sure. We’ve got to find a way to get below it. It was a little lower than we thought and hoped.
HOLMGREN
What was the perspective like for you this draft for the first time being the club president, sitting back and watching everything from a different vantage point.
“It’s still an interesting event… you’re looking at the… basically the future of our team and our franchise, so it’s still interesting and exciting to be involved in, and I thought that our fans were tremendous… the support last night, the emotion in the building was great. Had a lot of comments from a lot of teams about that, so it was great.
Do you feel like through the trade this week, and through the draft that Ron (Hextall) has a similar vision to one that you had when you were General Manager?
“I think we have a lot of the same thoughts, but Ron’s his own man… There’s some differences there too, which I think is good.
How would you characterize the situation moving forward where the cap number is now, where you’re at, and what you have to do to be obviously competitive for next season?
“We’re no different than a lot of teams, we’ve got some work to do… to put ourselves in the best position moving forward, and into the season, so… get to work starting, I’m sure tomorrow… The pro scouts are in town now, trying to chip away at ideas and put some pieces in place to get going.
The event here was able to show off Philadelphia, what did it mean for the organization, for you to kind of be the center of the hockey world for a week?
“I think our staff, obviously the league does a lot of the stuff too, but our staff working behind the scenes did a tremendous job. I was really proud of our organization last night, and again today. We had a good turnout again today… what’s normally a light day, the second day, but last night was incredible.
Was it fun here? The fans we’re still pretty loud, especially during the Rangers and Penguins.
“They were loud… that’s Flyers fans. They’re awesome.
What’d you think of the number one pick (Flyers first pick), you guys really have a lot of young defensemen in the system now?
“Yeah, it’s been a process over the last couple of years… I think Travis (Sanheim) is a smooth skating guy, he’s real good defensively, I think his offensive game picked up with the confidence he started to acquire going through this season… he made some huge strides this year, we’re excited to get him at 17.
Why did the scouts when you were there at 17 like him over a kid like Anthony (DeAngelo), and his offensive upside?
“There’s a lot of good players that we’re talking about and the layers of when Ron and the scouting staff go on through building your lists…it’s just the way it worked out. I mean we liked the player you mentioned as well and there’s some other guys we had right there too, but we decided to go with Travis. He’s the guy that we all as a group liked.
Hexy said he’s getting some teasing for drafting a relative…are you one of the guys that teased him a little bit?
“Oh no, I would never do that.” (laughter)
You also talked about a discussion he had with you recently about later round draft picks…can you elaborate on that?
“Well, I think you look around the other teams in the league and their draft records it’s something that we… you know, you go through the draft book and you see who drafts well and who doesn’t draft well, and you see teams that have guys that they get in the sixth, seventh, fifth round that are productive players in our league and I think as an organization is it something we need to look at and we need to do a better job? I think you pick and choose times throughout the Flyers history where they have… you know Rick Tocchet was a great pick, Pelle Eklund was a great pick, you could argue Hexy is a tremendous pick later in the draft. You know that’s where your area guys gotta really hone in on a guy they like and then step up, be excited about that guy… And then that’s part of their job. We’ve made some changes to our scouting staff over the last couple of years and that’s kind of a work in progress too. I’m happy with the work they’ve done the last couple of years.
Is that an evaluation process or is that getting to know kids a little deeper and a better understanding?
“A little bit of both. I think… the communication of your staff is so important, making sure there’s the right cross over… You get different eyes on different players that maybe that area guy likes. It’s a whole body of work.
You think it’s fair to say from just from a philosophy stand point that maybe there’s been a shift more toward faster skating, more diminutive kind of prospect than as Hex included “the grinder type” do you see that?
“That might be just the function of the league. You know as the league continues to get faster, puck possession becomes so much more important. Probably a little bit of what it’s about.”
*
For more Flyers, check out CSNPhilly.com:
click here 
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»