Ron Hextall has been around the game for a long time.
He's gone through the NHL draft as a player -- Philadelphia claimed him in the sixth round in 1982 -- and participated in quite a few of them as a scout and team executive.
But never has he experienced one quite like that which the league will conduct July 23-24.
The Penguins, like every other club, will be selecting prospects they had little opportunity to observe during the 2020-21 season, because some leagues that provide talent for the NHL didn't play at all, or had a severely truncated schedule, because of the pandemic.
Projecting how a teenaged player will develop is extremely difficult under ideal circumstances. And these have not been ideal circumstances.
"The draft, as we all know, is always a crapshoot," Hextall said. "But I think that if I had to give it an analogy, most years, you're kind of throwing darts to some degree, especially in the later rounds. This year, you're throwing darts, maybe with a blindfold on."
Barring any trades, the Penguins will have five choices in the 2021 draft: One each in the second and fifth rounds and three in the seventh.
Although that doesn't give Hextall and his amateur scouting staff much with which to work, Hextall described his recent meetings with the scouts as "very productive" and said they've worked out a preliminary ranking of prospects that will be used to make their selections.
"We'll tweak it," Hextall said. "We'll have more meetings leading up to the draft. There's some due diligence to do now, some background on a lot of kids. We'll continue to work here and we'll continue to tweak it, but for the most part, it's in order."
The Penguins have gotten a lot of mileage out of players who attended college -- the group includes current members of the team such as Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust, Brian Dumoulin, Brandon Tanev, John Marino and Jason Zucker, among others -- but Hextall said he doesn't have a strong preference for (or bias against) prospects who compete there.
One advantage that college players have over those who play junior is that NHL clubs can retain their rights for four years, rather than two, which gives an individual more time to develop and clubs longer to assess his pro potential.
"We typically take the best player," Hextall said. "But if there are two 'best' players and they're both a little bit raw and one's in junior and one's in college, we would typically take the guy we'd have a little more time with. But that's when they're exactly even. Which does happen, but not on a regular basis."
MORE PENGUINS
• Hextall's off-season to-do list is longer than a Tolstoy novel, and now that much of the planning for the expansion and annual drafts has been handled, he can turn his attention -- well, some of it, anyway -- to the players who are about to enter free agency. He hasn't divulged who he's interested in trying to retain, although at least some of those decisions apparently have been made, because he expects to open negotiations with the players he'd like to keep soon. "We're just kind of getting to that point, where we'll start to reach out," he said. Cody Ceci and Frederick Gaudreau top the group that will be unrestricted this summer, while the Penguins' restricted free-agents-to-be include Teddy Blueger and Zach Aston-Reese, both of whom have arbitration rights. -- Molinari
• Tom McMillan, who became a Penguins fan while growing up in Bellevue and ended up as a team executive with his name on the Stanley Cup, will put in his final day with the franchise Wednesday. McMillan's involvement in and around the franchise included a stint as a beat writer at the Post-Gazette and a few other media jobs before he joined the Penguins' media-relations department in the 1990s, eventually rising to the position of vice president of communications. McMillan, who also has authored books on Flight 93 and the Civil War, reflected on his career during this recent edition of the 66 to 87 podcast. -- Molinari
STEELERS
• The release of David DeCastro on Thursday comes as a surprise of sorts. The Steelers were very hush-hush when it came to the status of the veteran guard in deference to what he was going through. I have learned he'd been dealing with an ankle injury on which he had surgery after the 2019 season -- his second on that ankle -- and was continuing to get that checked out this offseason. Because of the injury, the Steelers gave him a NFI (Non-Football Injury) on his release. Coupled with the chest and knee issues he suffered early last season, DeCastro's body is starting to break down on him and he couldn't play the game at his previous high level. The Steelers save $8.75 million against their 2021 salary cap with DeCastro's release. DeCastro will have another surgery on his ankle that would have sidelined him indefinitely. Because of the NFI designation, DeCastro is unable to get any more benefits from the team. And it suggests DeCastro did something in the offseason to injure the ankle that did not happen while training. I'd be surprised if he plays in 2021 -- or again. But his release did give the Steelers $16 million in cap space. That was enough money sign free agent guard Trai Turner, who visited the team a week ago, as a replacement -- and one who is healthy. It might even be enough money to add free agent tackle Morgan Moses, as well, if the team chooses to add another accomplished veteran. It would be a lot of new parts up front, but the line was bad in 2020. Now, it will have four new starters, including one who started just the opener last season before tearing his ACL, Zach Banner. -- Dale Lolley on the South Side
• I'm told the NFL has told all teams that they are to have their radio teams on site for games this season. But the fly in the ointment is that the radio crews will not be permitted to travel on the team charters to away games as they have in the past. That means the broadcast crews will be traveling via regular flights. It doesn't sound like that big of a deal unless you've traveled and understand that flights get delayed or rescheduled on a pretty regular basis. The Steelers also will be breaking in a new broadcast crew or at least with different dynamics this season after the retirement of color analyst Tunch Ilkin. At this point, they haven't settled on a replacement or even if he will be replaced. The team could move one or both sideline reporters Craig Wolfley and Missi Mathews to the booth. Sideline reporters will be permitted this season, though the number of people on sidelines for games will be limited to 50 people. That sounds like a lot until you consider it covers two teams. It's all part of the moving parts of things as the league figures out its new post-pandemic protocols. -- Lolley
• One situation on which the Steelers will be keeping a close eye is what the Seahawks do with Jamal Adams. Seattle traded two first-round and a third-round draft picks to the Jets to acquire Adams last season. Adams had played the first three seasons of his career with the Jets and now is entering his fifth-year option season and is making $9.86 million. But he'd also like a new contract, reportedly one that would pay him an average of $20 million per year. Adams is a good player. But he's more of a linebacker than he is a safety. In 58 career games, he has 22 sacks, which is great, but he is a liability in coverage. He has just two career interceptions. But if Seattle pays him $20 million per season, you can bet Minkah Fitzpatrick's agent, Joel Segal, will take notice. And he'll ask for the same next year -- if not more. Seattle is in more of a bind. It gave up two first-round picks and another premium selection for Adams, despite having just two years of control over the safety. The Steelers' deal for Fitzpatrick, a 2020 fourth-round pick and a 2021 seventh-round pick in exchange for first- and fifth-round picks in 2020 and a 2021 sixth-round pick looks better all the time. Fitzpatrick is the better, more valuable player. Unfortunately for the Steelers, the Seahawks almost have to give Adams what he wants or close to it because of the draft capital they gave up to get him. -- Lolley
PIRATES
• It’s OK if Thursday’s announcement that Miguel Yajure was placed on the 60-day injured list caught you off guard, but there is nothing to worry about. Multiple sources confirmed there wasn’t a setback and everything remains on track. It’s just a case of he is going to be out 60 days anyway between the build up and rehab, so he might as well go on the 60-day IL. The same thing happened to Ke’Bryan Hayes earlier this season. That means Yajure will be eligible to return as early as the end of July. I don’t think Pirate fans need a reminder the trade deadline is then too, and Tyler Anderson and Chad Kuhl are two guys who should draw interest. Indianapolis Indians pitching coach Joel Hanrahan told me all Yajure needs is an opening in that rotation for him to be a big leaguer for good. While Steven Brault could also return to the rotation around that time, there’s a good chance a pathway is going to be cleared for Yajure to get his first extended look in the majors to close the year. -- Alex Stumpf in St. Louis
• Speaking of Hanrahan, he has a prediction: “Changeups are coming back, now that the sticky is out of the game.” There hasn’t been a drastic change in pitch usage league-wide in the days since Major League Baseball started to check for foreign substances -- the sample size would be too small anyway even if there was a difference -- but the league has definitely shifted towards spin pitches during the Statcast era. Foreign substances aid in getting more spin, so if there is less movement, another paradigm shift could be possible. For what it’s worth, the league has a .377 slugging percentage against changeups this year. Going back to the start of pitch tracking in 2008, the only year that had a lower league slugging clip was 2014 (.369). -- Stumpf
• An interesting development around the game has been the clamoring for automated umpiring, at least in the strike zone. The league first decided to experiment with the so-called “robo umps” in the independent Atlantic League in 2019, and expanded that experiment to the low Class A Southeast minor-league division for 2021. That puts Bradenton manager Jonathan Johnston as the Pirates’ first beta-tester for this experimental new rule. “[Everyone], for the entire time I've ever been around baseball has complained about … the consistency of umpires. And, I think that the robo ump ... provide the consistency,” Johnston said. Endy Rodriguez, the regular catcher for that Marauders squad said he felt the zone that the ABS system called was a little tighter and closer to that of a major-league strike zone. While Johnston appreciated the fact the ABS took away some complaining and excuses regarding the strike zone, he didn’t think the league would put up with specific corners getting called the way they have and the next iteration of the ABS strike zone would be shaped like an oval instead of a rectangle. “It looks weird and it just isn't what normally is a strike to the every day observer of baseball,” Johnston said. “There's different ways that they're trying to combat that in the future. But, it's been consistent. I can tell you that. I think that it makes our pitchers attack the strike zone and learn how to pitch and to be honest with you, I think it removes excuses. And I like that.” -- Gerard Gilberto