Ron Hextall acknowledged that the status of Mike Buckley's job with the Penguins had been an "ongoing conversation" throughout the offseason.
"It's going through the process, making sure we're thinking of everything and talking things through," Hextall said in a virtual media availability on Thursday. "It's one of those things that you'd like to do as soon as you can at the end of the year, but sometimes there's other things that either take precedent, or there's a little bit more of a process that you want to go through. And that was the case here."
On Wednesday evening, Hextall announced that the Penguins were moving on from Buckley as goaltending coach, and that he would be replaced by Andy Chiodo, who had previously served as the organization's goaltending development coach for the last three seasons.
Buckley was the longest-tenured member of the Penguins' coaching staff, working as goaltending development coach from 2013-17, then as the head goaltending coach from 2017-21.
"When you make decisions like that, a lot of it is what your gut is telling you," Hextall said of the change. "Obviously, when it comes to decisions of this magnitude, you talk to all your people, and we certainly got opinions from all our people. In the end, we just felt like we needed to change. We had Andy sitting right there, and with his experience and knowledge of the organization, the goaltenders, he was in the end the right guy."
Hextall's familiarity with Chiodo dates back to Chiodo's time as a player and Hextall's as a scout. Hextall said that he remembers watching Chiodo play in goal when Chiodo was playing for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and that he liked the way he's developed since then, coaching in the OHL, the AHL, and the Penguins' development job. During this process in searching for a goaltending coach, Hextall said that he spoke to people within the Penguins' organization who were more familiar with Chiodo and that there "wasn't a bad word said about him."
"His attention to detail on our prospects and our goalies and Wilkes there, delving into the mental side of it, and their lives to some degree," Hextall said about Chiodo. "I just like what he brings to the table. I've met him a couple of times and felt comfortable that he was the right guy."
Chiodo is familiar with both Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith, after previously working with both in his development role, and Hextall believes that Chiodo can help them with that mental side of their games.
"Hopefully we can make some little tweaks," Hextall said. "And the mental side of the game for a goaltender is is a huge part of it. Andy is is well aware of that. Going back to (Jarry's) experience from from last year, he's still a young goalie that's learning. And I believe he's going to learn a lot from last year. I really like what Andy is going to bring to the table here."
With the Penguins' move at goaltending coming in the coaching position and not with one of the goaltenders in net, it seems safe to say that Jarry will continue to be the No. 1 goaltender next season. Hextall expressed confidence in Jarry's ability to rebound from his postseason struggles for next season.
"When you're a goaltender -- and I lived it -- there's disappointments that you have to get over and you have to bounce back from," Hextall said. "And I feel strongly that Tristan is going to bounce back and be a very good goaltender for us throughout the entire year."
MORE FROM THE GM
• Hextall spoke of the importance of the goaltending development job, working with the goaltenders in Wilkes-Barre, as well as the prospects in Europe in Joel Blomqvist and Calle Clang, who Hextall said "need some attention from the organization, some teaching, some mentoring." Chiodo will "lead the process" in looking for his replacement, and Chiodo, Hextall, Brian Burke and Patrik Allvin will all be involved in the final decision.
• After DeSmith finished the season with a soft tissue groin injury, Hextall said that DeSmith is back on the ice, skating and taking shots, and that he expects DeSmith to be "100 percent long before training camp."
• Hextall, on where things stand with the defense after Cody Ceci moved on to the Oilers: "We'll look to upgrade at any position. If we can upgrade on defense, we'll certainly look at it. We don't have much wiggle room in terms of cap space, so we'd have to get creative but I think (Mark Friedman and Chad Ruhwedel) are both guys that we feel can certainly play in the league, along with (Juuso RIikola) and obviously (P.O Joseph). The other thing is you look at guys like like (Marcus Pettersson) and John Marino and we think there's more there. They're both young players. There's more there than they gave us last year, and both talking at year-end end feel like there's more there. So we feel in some ways like there's upside in those two players, which could really help solidify our defense."
• Hextall on the signing of forward Danton Heinen: "He's a well-rounded player that we feel like there's some upside there. There's obvious numbers there in Boston at the start of his career that kind of catches your eye, we feel like there's a little bit more goal-scoring there. He can kill penalties and we just feel like he's a good fit for our team. He can play both wings. We felt like there's a little bit of a value signing. So hopefully he can do what we expect him to do here."
• Jon Taglianetti took over as head equipment manager, and Dana Heinze was moved to the assistant equipment manager position. The Penguins' other assistant equipment managers, Danny Kroll and Paul DeFazio, will continue in their existing roles.
"We spoke to Dana and Jon both, and that's where both felt comfortable, and Dana felt very comfortable there, too," Hextall said. "So it wasn't that much of a change, a little bit of a change in title for Dana. But all is good there."
