CRANBERRY, Pa. -- It's hard to ignore the fact that the Penguins' salary cap issues are directly related to bad contracts toward the bottom of the lineup that have been dished out by Ron Hextall in the last two years. The core -- in total -- is checking in at a cheaper rate than they have in over a decade, yet this roster might be constructed with one of the worst supporting casts in the Crosby era, at least since they became competitive.
After addressing one of those bad contracts in waiving Kasperi Kapanen Friday, Hextall met with the media here at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex to talk strictly hockey-related activity for just the second time since the regular season began.
It came as a bit of a surprise that Hextall moved on from Kapanen just 57 games into a two-year contract. I asked if, given the struggles of players he's recently signed, he and his front office have reconsidered their player evaluation process.
Not so fast.
"No, I think we’ve made made some good moves," Hextall responded. "I think you look at every team and there’s probably some moves that you always look back, things are 20/20 in hindsight."
He then insinuated there's more going on than meets the eye when it comes to players who appear to be struggling.
"I think sometimes players have more value to a team than maybe the fans or people realize, whether it’s faceoffs or penalty-kill, or whatever it might be. So, I think there’s different circumstances when you’re building a team. You’re looking, OK, how many PP guys do we have? How many PK guys do we have? Do we have a left-shot center and do we have a right-shot center for faceoffs?
"There’s a lot of things that go into it outside of just looking on the periphery and kind of saying, ‘This guy’s not productive,’ or, ‘This guy’s not playing well enough.’ But everything doesn’t end the way you hope it’ll end, too. As a manager, you try to make more good decisions than bad decisions. It doesn’t mean every decision I, or anybody else makes are perfect, because they’re not. You just try to make the decisions off the information that you have, and hope they’re gonna work out."
Hextall deserves credit for bringing back the core, targeting, acquiring and re-signing Rickard Rakell, as well as targeting and acquiring Jeff Carter during the 2020-21 season. But regardless of what's said, the contracts to Kapanen and Brock McGinn, as well as the extension Carter received in the middle of last season, are undeniably hurting right now.
When Hextall was asked specifically for his assessment of Carter's current performance, the majority of his response focused on the bottom six as a whole and lamenting the salary cap crunch before footnoting that, while he could be better at times, Carter fills the role of being strong on faceoffs and playing on the penalty-kill.
"You look at our bottom six, I think a lot of people have alluded to it, but for some reason, it hasn’t quite fit. Pieces haven’t fit," Hextall said. "Part of the Kappy thing, we’re not blaming Kappy by any stretch of the imagination, but I think the pieces just haven’t fit, and we’re trying to find pieces that fit.
"So, the question earlier whether it’s a (Alex) Nylander or (Valtteri) Puustinen at some point that comes up and give it another look, we just try to give the coaches the options that we can give him, but we’re in a tight cap situation, which we’re trying to rectify a little bit here. But when you’re up against it, there’s only so many things you can do. Players get hurt, one guy goes on LTIR and everything changes. So, unfortunately it’s hard to plan for it. We certainly don’t want it to happen, but it does happen. You just need to have the pieces down below it to come up and fill in. But like I said, maybe one of those guys, at some point, is a piece that helps the bottom six.
"I think Jeff has done some good things," he said, getting around to the question. "I think at times he’s played well, and I think I said this last time, there’s times where he can play better than he’s playing. But he’s a big faceoff guy for us, he’s a penalty-killer for us and he fills the role."
MORE FROM HEXTALL
• He said it at the beginning of the month, and he said it again Friday: The Penguins aren't selling at the trade deadline. That bed was made over the offseason when the core was brought back.
"Our intent is to continue to try to make this team better," he said. "This year and year’s beyond this year, we want to stay competitive. We made that commitment last summer with our core. Those guys have played well. I guess the hardest part about our team right now is probably the volatility. It’s a tough one, quite frankly, to put a finger on. I think we had that streak with 20 games that we were really good, and we’ve had some six-, seven-game streaks where we haven’t been very good. Some nights, you ask yourself, ‘What team are we?’ But I know we’ve showed we’re capable of being a very good team, and we’re gonna continue to try and make our team better, as I said, this year and years ahead."
• Although a fire sale isn't on the way, don't expect Hextall to ship out premium assets, like a first-round pick, unless the centerpiece of the return will be able to help the team beyond this season.
"We’re gonna do everything we can to improve the team," he said. "But I’m also not looking to spend big assets on rentals. So, if we’re gonna spend a big asset, it’s gonna help us this year and years to come. That decision has been made. If we can do something that makes sense for a few years here, makes our team better, we’ll certainly do it and look hard and evaluate it and see if it’s the right decision for our team at this time."
• As for potential Wilkes-Barre/Scranton players to make the jump to the NHL? Puustinen, Nylander, Filip Hallander and Jonathan Gruden have caught Hextall's eye.
"We’re still jammed up there," Hextall responded when asked if waiving Kapanen allowed for more roster movement. "I mean, [Drew O’Connor] could go down, bring somebody up, but OC’s played pretty well for us. But we’ve certainly had discussions about players down there. I think Puustinen and Nylander have played extremely well. Hallander’s played well. Gruden, I think, is out right now, but he’s played pretty well. So, we have options down there to bring up, and certainly we’ve discussed them along the way. We’ll continue to keep an eye on them."
• The 'FI-RE HEX-TALL' chants erupting in PPG Paints Arena Thursday night were heard loud and clear by the general manager. Despite holding an impromptu press conference the following day, he says those chants had no affect on him.
"It doesn’t impact me at all," he said. "I understand the fans’ frustration. We have a high expectations, as well, and we haven’t met them. So, I totally get it. When you’re a GM, you know what you’re signing up for. We work in the public eye, and they pay good money to come to the rink. They certainly have the right to chant and say whatever they choose. Not going to affect anything I do or don’t do. Since I was 22 and came in the league, criticism is part of the business and you just have to handle it, you have to deal with it."
