Flyers' Hextall is cautious, but time is right for youth movement
Though GM Ron Hextall calls it a long shot, the Flyers could have as many as six rookies in the lineup in 2017-18.
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The Flyers are going to look vastly different in 2017-18. And when you consider they are coming off a mostly listless season in which they won 10 straight at one point but somehow still managed to miss the playoffs, well, different is a good thing.
A lot of the Flyers' roster will be determined in the next two weeks, starting with the expansion draft on Wednesday, continuing with the NHL draft this weekend, and the free-agency period that begins July 1. Trades will also alter the landscape.
From here, the Flyers could have as many as six rookies on their roster: defensemen Sam Morin and Robert Hagg, left winger Oskar Lindblom, center Nico Hischier or Nolan Patrick (whichever one they draft), goalie Anthony Stolarz, and center Mike Vecchione.
Flyers general manager Ron Hextall seemed amused when the possibility of six rookies was mentioned.
"Well, I don't quite see it like you do," he said Friday. "But in a perfect world, you have two, three rookies on your team every year. There's a certain excitement, a certain influx of youth, that they infect the team with. It's kind of what you want every year. If we put two, three rookies in the lineup every year, that's terrific."
Added Hextall: "Six is a little much. But if they're the best players and will make you a better team. I'm not afraid of having young players in my lineup. You guys know how I operate. I don't put a guy in because he is a first-round pick."
The Flyers have the No. 2 overall pick in the first round Friday in Chicago. They will get a delicious "leftover" after New Jersey makes the No. 1 selection.
If the Flyers end up with Patrick, he is physically ready to play in the NHL right away. At center. That could force the Flyers to juggle their lineup and possibly move Valtteri Filppula to wing.
If they end up with the dynamic Hischier, another center, he is very capable of moving to wing. In fact, some scouts believe that may be his best position. Hischier is not done filling out and may need a year in juniors. But if he is drafted by the Flyers, he would probably get a nine-game tryout before they decided whether to send him down.
Hextall is also talking with other teams about dealing the No. 2 overall pick, and he could drop down in the draft if he is overwhelmed by an offer.
That would be surprising. So it is expected that the Flyers will select No. 2 for the first time since 2007, when they lost the lottery with Chicago — which picked some guy named Patrick Kane — and were left with James van Riemsdyk, a solid, goal-scoring left winger.
Hextall, sticking with his MO, said he will be patient with whomever the Flyers select.
"I believe in putting young players in when they are ready to play," he said. "Whatever necessary training they need, then so be it. There is a history in our game of putting young players in just because they are young players and a have spot to fill and maybe you overestimate them because they are a junior or college [star]. And all of a sudden you look back and ask, 'What were we thinking.?' I don't believe in that. We're not going to make mistakes by putting players in too young."
Hextall cited Hagg, selected in the second round of the 2013 draft, as an example of a player who has improved each year with the Phantoms and is on the verge of reaching the NHL.
"He put his time and training in," Hextall said of Hagg's minor-league development. "If Hagger comes to camp and plays well, I'd be pretty comfortable he is ready to help us…..But if he didn't have the training, I wouldn't feel like that."
The more Hextall talked, however, the less he dismissed having so many young players on his roster this coming season. He continued to say he would be surprised if six rookies cracked the lineup, but conceded that last season makes him open to the idea that changes are needed.
"I said at the end of the year, I wasn't happy with the way the year went," he said. "And if rookies come in and they're better than the kids we've got, we're going to have some tough decisions."
Let the youth movement begin.