Philadelphia Flyers GM Ron Hextall is doing his best to fix the situation that was left by his predecessor - and Flyers team president - Paul Holmgren. Hextall, speaking to reporters recently as part of an early season state of the team address, suggested that what he really needs to see out of Dave Hakstol's group is better, more aggressive play.
"You're always going to have ups and downs in the season, but this one was a little too far down for me. We gotta be a team that gains consistency," Hextall said recently, via Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo Sports.
"When you look at us, we have to have a little more balance in the ups and downs."
Behind the scenes though, reports suggest that Hextall continues to attempt to deal.
"I think he'd love to do something. I really do," Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman said Friday while appearing on Calgary's Sportsnet 960, via Today's Slap Shot. "But I think he'd love to do something for a while. He's had Brayden Schenn out there. He's had Luke Schenn out there. Obviously he's had Lecavalier out there. There's no biting on this. From what I'm told, unless something happened in the last couple of days, he's had no serious interest in Lecavalier in a long time. That's a really tough one."
Friedman, referring to the situation left to Hextall as "a mess," suggested that there may be no solution to the Flyers and Hextall's current woes other than to "ride it out."
And, unfortunately for Flyers fans, that may be the case.
Hextall has already worked something like roster magic by managing to unload Nicklas Grossmann, Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn, and the contract of Chris Pronger. Still, issues aplenty remain on the current Philadelphia roster.
Vinny Lecavalier, the player mentioned above, hasn't drawn any trade interest likely due in large part to his mammoth contract - $4.5 million cap hit through 2017-18 - as much as his limited skill at this point. Luke Schenn, a former first-round pick and looming unrestricted free agent who has been a healthy scratch for much of 2015-16, is suffering from much the same fate, though his lack of skate speed is likely the bigger hindrance to his heading elsewhere.
His younger brother Brayden has played fairly well for the Flyers this season - five goals, two assists - but has failed to become the type of top tier player Holmgren likely thought he acquired him from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Mike Richards. Who would have though, years later, that Wayne Simmonds would be the best player in that deal?
If Hextall is unable to unload any of these pieces - or really, any pieces at all, like maybe Mark Streit, who still likely carries significant value, or R.J. Umberger, who doesn't - the team really doesn't have any choice but to wait and hope that in two or three years' time their young defense has blossomed into NHL-caliber talent and players like captain Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek still have several seasons of elite play left in them.
