Ron Hextall meet with the media on Thursday to discuss a number of issues - the draft, injuries, free agency and the buyout of R.J. Umberger.
Here is the transcript, courtesy of the Flyers:
Are you leaning more towards taking forwards or will you take the best player?
First round we’re going to take the best player. What it’s going to be, I don’t know. I told you guys a while ago we are going to have some emphasis in this draft on skill and size. Hopefully combined, but that’s a tough thing to grab. That’s going to be a little bit of our focus but the first round we are definitely taking the best player.
On the depth of the draft
When you have a #7 pick you kind of look at seven, when you have #18 you look at 18. Our feeling is at 18 we’re going to get a real good prospect and I believe beyond our pick there’s still good players there. So no matter what, we feel like we’re going to get a good player no matter
what the order goes and a lot of it is to see how the board falls.
On picking the best player vs. filling needs
There is, because so many players, if you look at the history of the draft, there’s a lot of players in that first round that don’t play in the league or don’t play many games in the league. So if you start getting specific and trying to fill needs, you can miss. So we want to take the player that’s got partially the best chance of playing and partially the best player. There’s a little bit of a mix there that we talk about amongst our scouts, and pick the guy with the best chance of playing combined with the highest upside. So there’s a real feel there that our guys have done a good job at, and they’ve got to continue.
Strength of draft position-wise
Early, there’s a lot of forwards. There’s some good D as well. It’s a good draft. Like I said at #18 we’re going to get a good player, certainly better than a lot of years at #18. We’ve just got to make the right pick.
On whether they’d consider moving up
I can’t answer that question. Last year, we moved up to get Konecny, but if you asked me the day before or quite frankly an hour before, we don’t know if that’s there or not. So it’s really hard to gauge what we’re going to do. We feel like it’s a good draft. I talked to Dennis Patterson about it and he doesn’t think he’s seen drafts back-to-back as good as these two. Last year was obviously a bumper draft. Is it as good as last year? No, but is it the average draft? We don’t believe so.
On changes he’s implemented in the draft process since arriving as GM
I’m not sure. I wasn’t around prior, so I’m not really sure how it worked. I know way back to when I was here before, I was in a few of those meetings so I know how it worked back then. And I think everybody evolves. I like to be thorough and go through it and ask our guys good questions and try to figure out and get the best players. Homer did the same thing, and every other GM in the league does the same thing. So I’m not really sure how much it’s changed, but we all evolve. I was talking to Chris Pryor this morning – we’re trying to get better every year. We’re trying to get better this year, better than we were last year. We’re trying to find ways. We sat down with our scouts, we got done our meeting 10 days ago, were at the combine for four days and came back here for four days of meetings, then we pick it up again on Saturday for three days. You’re just trying to find ways to get better and there are a lot of things to talk through. There’s a lot of names.
On whether the organization is lacking in forward prospects
You have to look at that a little closer. I think if you look at most organizations, probably not. If you look at compared to our defense, I think it’s fair to say. We have a little more defense prospects than we do forward prospects. It’s no different. Last year we didn’t have a lot of goalies so we loaded up last year, a little more than I anticipated. This year there’s a little bit of a focus on forwards for sure. Now that doesn’t mean we’re not going to pick defensemen, we are. Are we going to pick three goalies? I don’t think so. Part of it is how the board falls. If there’s a defenseman there in the third round that we didn’t think was going to be there, we’re taking him. But if its two guys that are same, we lean towards the forwards. I always come up before the draft – we’ve got 10 picks. In a perfect world maybe we pick one goalie, two or three defensemen and the rest forwards. Well, we don’t live in a perfect world, but that’s kind of the outline going in, but again if there’s a defenseman there late in the draft and we’ve drafted a couple already or three or four already and he’s there and we like him that much, you can’t go by guys you like that much.
On how high they’d need to move up in order to move up
I think the feeling with most hockey people is there’s a lot at the top, and then after that it levels out. So there’s a feeling there that [either] you get into the top few or you’re just as well to stay where you are. But we also don’t know how the board is going to fall, so we sit and look at that right now, again most hockey people think that. But the board’s not going to fall the way everybody thinks it is.
On the effects of expansion on the Flyers’ future plans and this draft
Not into ours necessarily because we’re in good shape for expansion. We’ve already been through that exercise and we feel like we’re in good shape. So if we can add a good player we would, I’m not afraid of the expansion draft. Some other teams, they’re going to lose good players if they don’t move somebody. For now we’ve been through the exercise and we’re in good shape.
On notification of expansion draft procedures
Yeah, we got the memos. I don’t remember exactly. You guys have probably read and what you read is pretty much [accurate.] I know the one thing is no-move clauses, guys can waive them. So there’s a lot still a lot I guess when you’re looking at your team and you say, what is [inaudible] and what is not, you look at that and go OK is he going to waive it or is he going to want to stay?
Is there a deadline to waive the NMC?
I’m not sure that’s determined yet. I don’t know. We’re not concerned about it. We did a rough draft of an expansion draft and we’re in good shape. We’re probably a little bit fortunate right now to have some young players that don’t need to be exposed.
Status of Claude Giroux and Shayne Gostisbehere
They’re doing great. I actually ran into Ghost on the way in. He’s feeling really good, training hard, looks good. G, I think he just went back home, but everything is real good with him. It’s a fairly straightforward procedure so we didn’t expect any hiccups and we certainly haven’t had any. Sometimes when you have surgery your focus starts really quickly after the season to get going and get your body rehabbed and back in shape. So I think when you look for a positive, that’s it. You don’t give yourself that two or three weeks to fade away.
On the chances of finding a player in the late rounds
There’s still hidden gems. I think it’s fair to say guys aren’t hidden like they used to be, whether they’re in some obscure country or they play in the Quebec league up someplace where not many people are, scouts don’t get there. There aren’t a lot of secrets, there’s a lot of talk now, a lot of forums for players, scouting services and everything. There’s not a lot hidden, but they are there. Lindblom is an example, he was a later round pick right now that looks like he’s got a pretty good chance of playing. He’s a really good prospect that was picked late in the draft. There are players out there that you could hit on. Our guys lately I feel have done a pretty good job. Look at Ghost, he was a third round pick. Pretty darn good third round pick. So there are guys out there. Our [scouts] have to try to be better than everybody else.
Any other surgeries?
[Matt Read] had a procedure yesterday on his thumb. It was minimal, it was a cleanup. Everything was good, he was a little bit sore at the end of the season, the feeling was that it was going to go away. He was golfing, working out and doing everything he does. Then he went to shoot pucks and it was sore so we had it checked out. I don’t want to say it was minimal, but it was just a cleanup. Four weeks till he’s ready to play, so it’s not a big deal. He can continue his workouts other than that.
On Max Jones and Julien Gauthier
Gauthier’s a big guy, skates well. He’s a scorer. Jones is a big guy as well, skates really well, plays a physical game, and has a nice skill set.
Status of R.J. Umberger
We’ve decided we’re going to buy R.J. out. He’s got a no-move clause so it’s his choice whether he goes on waivers or not. So we’re just waiting for the paperwork to go through, it will be done hopefully by the end of the day.
Was it a tough decision?
Not really. You don’t want to make rash decisions at the end of the season but that’s the way we we’re leaning. We need the space and I think it is probably better for R.J and for us.
On the Umberger/Hartnell trade
There were two parts to the trade essentially. The one was the space. I felt like two or three years from then it was going to be good for us, and I feel the same way now. Hartsy’s been a good player in Columbus and R.J. didn’t play as well as we hoped and certainly didn’t play as well as he hoped. There were some health issues there as well, so in terms of the deal right now I feel like it’s a benefit for us. We need space, we’ve got guys that are coming up like Ghost and Schenn and Gudas. We need space. Hartsy played well for Columbus, and we’re essentially going to be out of it. So I’m fine with it.
On Vincent Lecavalier’s retirement status and his impending bonus payment
I don’t believe we’re going to have exposure there. That’s kind of everything that we have gathered. I believe that it’s not going to be on our cap.
Status of team’s RFAs
Gudas we’re working away. Not sure we’re getting anywhere but we’re trying. Schenn, I spoke with his representatives about a week ago on something else we kind of talked that we would get together in the next little while here and get started. That’s kind of where we’re at. Ryan White – I talked to them and put something out there, and we’re waiting to hear back.
On league trends
The one thing I’ve learned over the years is you have to be very careful being a copycat. When you start chasing everybody you go away from your foundation and the very next year a team that plays a totally different style wins a Cup. So you’ve got to be careful there. You’ve got to believe what you believe in, stick to your foundation and make little adjustments rather than flip from black to white. Pitt’s got a good team. People question whether you can win with three or four guys as high on the cap as they have and they win. They kind of went against conventional wisdom there, and they won so no real blueprint where you say this is the only way to win. You look at Chicago, you look at LA, back to Chicago, Pittsburgh, there’s differences. Probably Chicago and Pitt are closer than L.A and Pitt but they’ve both won. Again there’s no blueprint necessarily to say this is the perfect team. Pitt didn’t win last year but they added some speed and stuff, but they had some pretty good pieces in place.
Did they change their attack system?
Playing a conservative game, I don’t think you can win like that. You can stay close, but you’ve got to attack. I think the game has moved to that and that’s not only offensively, that defensively, the time, the space. I was just talking to Chris in there, we were talking about years ago there was so much time and space. Now with the backpressure and taking away a guy’s time and space it’s a quick game. Don’t forget speed doesn’t only come from the individual player; speed comes from moving the puck quick. I’ll go back to LA there when Darryl Sutter came on board and we started moving the puck quick we went from what people thought was a slow team to a fast team. The puck moves faster than players so if you are a possession team who moves the puck quick and hits people in stride when our team executes we’re a pretty fast team. When we don’t execute, we’re not. If you start putting pucks in people’s feet it slows everyone’s momentum down, slows your speed down, slows your pressure down. Obviously if you have good players who can execute, you’re going to play a fast game but it’s an attack game now. It’s about going after the win rather than years ago there was a little bit more of a defensive mentality where you had to play well defensively and then you had a chance to win. Typically you were in close games but did you ever win? Not sure. Now it’s an attack game all over the ice.
On Matt Read’s play
I’m confident that he can get back to the level that he was at. But yeah, we need more there. I know [Read] knows that he can play better. He’s not a bad player. He’s a good defensive player even when he scores 10, 11, 12 goals. But he can play better for sure. He knows that, we’ve talked about it, the coach talked to him about it. He’ll be a good player for us.
Comparing Flyers to top teams
I still believe goaltending, defense, centers. Build through the middle. In terms of how far away we are… talk is cheap. We need to keep building here and find ways to get better and allow our success to tell us when our time has come. I can sit here and say we are this far away from being a top team but we’ve got a lot of work to do to become a top team. I know that. We had some success last year, but we lost out in the first round. We made the playoffs – OK, that’s fine and dandy. But that’s not what we’re here to do. We have a lot of work to do no doubt about it. I’ll say this, and I have said this to you guys before, our young players grew a lot this year. Schenner, Coots, Ghost, Sam Morin, Robert Hagg and then you get to the kids in minors and college, our kids grew a lot. Phillipe Myers, Provorv, Sanheim, Fazleev. You look and you are we better than we were last year? As a team, as an organization, our depth chart, damn right we’re a lot better. Now is that going to show up in the NHL in October? We’ll see. But I know our kids got better. Plant your garden, well you know what the shoots are coming up now. They’re not full, the flowers aren’t there. But we’ve come a long ways in this organization in the past year. When you send those kids back you see them take their game to a whole new level, playing 23 or 24 minutes. Myers and Provorov are in the Memorial Cup, Sanheim has a good year. You see them and it’s like wow we’re making progress here. It doesn’t necessarily show out there in the next 3 months or 6 months but we are getting there. I’m excited about where we’re at, but in saying that, it’s a process. It doesn’t happen quickly, it takes time and I like where we’re at.
On whether he feels a need to add veteran players
The time was right for [Pittsburgh]. Their top two guys are in their late 20s and it’s time for them to win. They did a good job, their coaches. Their players were committed and they did a good job. Obviously they made some good acquisitions there during the year and I think they had some kids step up. Rust and Kunhackl and Sheary, those guys added a lot. They don’t only add what they add on the ice but they give you some enthusiasm. They were good role players for them. They did a good job no doubt. Those kids might have added as much. Matt Murray – those guys have added a lot. Those are system kids. Jimmy [Rutherford] made some good acquisitions there for sure.
Would you like to add a top-6 forward in free agency?
Do I hope to? Yes. Are we going to? I don’t know. Term scares me, because term gets you in trouble. So if the right player’s there, at the right dollar figure, at the right cap space, we’re going to take a run at him. If he’s not, we’re not. We’re not doing something July 1st that two minutes later we are going to regret and we’re not doing something that we’re going to regret in two or three years when these kids’ contracts are up and we end up having to trade a young kid because of cap space and veterans are aging. I don’t know. Would I like to? Yes. Are we going to? I don’t know.
Are you afraid of being too cautious?
No. I’m afraid of losing a good young defenseman for the wrong reasons and having to sell cheap. When we get to a point where I feel like we’re ready to take a run, that’s when you add a player that’s going to try to put you over the top.
On orchestrating something at draft for early negotiating rights
If the right player’s there, yeah. I’m not going to make a move for one or two years. We’re not going to trade a significant young piece for a guy for 1 or 2 years. We have some growing to do here. But if we can make ourselves better right now at the right price, yeah.
On the July development camp
The development camp, we’re very pointed right off the bat that this is a week for you to get better. We are not going to evaluate you. We’re going to find ways to try and make you better, try and send you away with certain things to work on the rest of the summer to make yourself better. So we’re very strict about that. I tell everybody on our staff, no evaluations here. You want to have the kids unguarded where they say ‘hey I feel like I need to work on this’ and bang, John Riley or Kjell Samuelsson give them a template to work on, whatever they need to work on, strength coach. So that’s the time we really want them to try and get better. Training camp is different. I say this, kids who played really well in junior have given themselves a leg up in trying to make our team. That’s really the first part of the tryout. A guy has a terrible year in juniors and he comes in here in September for a week and plays great – you’ve got to be careful there. Like I said, a lot of our kids have really good years and afforded themselves a chance to get a look this year.
On Sean Couturier’s role on the team
Coots has got too much skill to be a prototypical third line guy. You’d be wasting an asset there. Coots makes a lot of plays and he’s gotten better. We all forget how young this kid is. I’ve been saying it for three years. He’s better than a third line player. So to sit and kind of waste a guy’s ability wouldn’t be good for us.
On upgrading the forwards
We’d like to upgrade our top nine. Perfect world you say what can we upgrade? Our top nine, if it’s a top 6 terrific, if it’s a third line guy, yeah we can live with that too. But we’d like to upgrade there.
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