Ron Hextall on the State of the Penguins Heading into the Trade Deadline
The GM discussed the decision to place Kasperi Kapanen on waivers and more
Pittsburgh had acquired the 26-year-old winger, who had originally been drafted by the organization in the first round back in 2014, from Toronto in August of 2020. He put up 30 points (11G-19A) in his first season with Pittsburgh before recording 32 points in 79 games last year.
When the Penguins re-signed Kapanen to a two-year contract with an average annual value of $3.2 million - the same amount he'd been making on his previous deal - in July, they hoped he would be able to reach that potential he'd originally showed. Instead, they ended up placing him on the aforementioned waivera.
"When a team doesn't live up to expectations, I think change is inevitable, and I'm sure that's part of it," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "Kappy is a really talented player. And, to a certain extent, it's on all of us, because we didn't find a way to maximize his potential."
After practice, Penguins general manager Ron Hextall met with the media this afternoon to discuss that decision and more ahead of the trade deadline, which is scheduled for next Friday, March 3.
With Kasperi Kapanen, was there a point of no return or a last straw there in making that move, and hindsight's always 20/20 - but what made you want to re-sign a player who had a disappointing season by any measure to a similar cap hit last summer?
Fair question. I think it was two years ago, Kap had 30 points in 40 games, and looking like he was a pretty good player. The feeling was last year was a bit of a down year, and that he would bounce back. He's still almost a half a point a game guy, and I think he can be a productive player. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked here. So tough decisions have to be made along the way. And that's what this was with Kappy.
Given some of the struggles to some of the players that you've signed to contracts over the past couple of seasons, and just the inconsistencies in general across the team, has that made you and your front office reconsider your player evaluation at all?
No, I think we've made some good moves. I think you look at every team, and there's probably some moves that you always look back on. Things are 20/20 in hindsight, obviously, as was just mentioned. 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 like, okay, how many PP guys do we have, how many PK guys do we have? Do we have a left shot center, 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 saying, this guy's not productive, or this guy's not playing well enough. But everything doesn't end the way you hope it will end, too. As a manager, you try to make more good decisions than bad decisions. So doesn't mean every decision I or anybody else makes are perfect, because they're not. But you just try to make the decisions with all the information that you have, and assume and hope that they're going to work out.
When you spoke with us a few weeks ago, you said that more or less, you hoped nothing would happen that would make this team sellers by the deadline. As we stand a week out, is that still true that you would likely not consider selling by the deadline?
Our intent is to continue to try to make this team better, this year and years 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 where we were really good. And we've had some six, seven-game streaks where we haven't been very good. So kind of like, on some nights, you ask yourself, what team are we? But I know this - we've showed that we're capable of being a very good team. And we're going to continue to try and make our team better, as I said, this year and years ahead.
How are you finding the prices on the market? And do you think as constructed, your team can make the playoffs?
I do believe we can make the playoffs, yes. The prices are high, they always are at this time of the year. Sometimes they fall, and sometimes they don't. So, we'll continue to monitor the prices and the fits and everything as we go along here. And as I said, we'll try and make our team better.
There were chants last night during the game to have you fired. What's your reaction to that, and how does that impact you as the GM?
It doesn't impact me at all. I understand the fans' frustration. We have 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 and they certainly have the right to chant and say whatever they choose. So not going to affect anything I do or don't do. Since I was 22 and came in the league, criticism is a part of the business. You have to handle it, you have to deal with it.
Was the Kapanen move necessary to get Jan Rutta back on the roster because of LTIR (long-term injured reserve)? And also, do you need to do something else to clear cap space to improve this team?
We're gonna do everything we can to improve the team. But we're not looking to spend big assets on rentals. So if we're going to spend a big asset, it's going to 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 far as Kappy, yes, that was part of the thought process. We had to make a hard decision to get Rutts back on and that was the one we made. It wasn't easy. I mean, Kappy is still a good player. Is he a perfect player? No, but there's not many perfect players. So Kappy brings an element with his speed and skill, and as I said earlier, it just hasn't worked here. So we'll see where it goes.
Does the Kapanen move allow them enough space to bring up anyone from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and if there's anyone down there who's intrigued him with their play as of late?
We're still jammed up there. We can send OC (Drew O'Connor) down, bring somebody up. But OC's played pretty well for us. We've certainly had discussions about players down there. I think (Valterri) Puustinen and (William) Nylander have played extremely well, (Filip) Hallander has played well. (Jonathan) 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 all, and we'll continue to keep an eye on them.
Your most prominent addition since being GM is arguably Jeff Carter. He gave you some energy after the trade deadline, had a productive year last year. The offensive numbers maybe aren't there right now. What's your assessment with what Jeff is offering your team?
Well, I think you look at our bottom six, a lot of people have alluded to it. For some reason, it hasn't quite fit. Pieces haven't fit. 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 Nylander or a Puustinen at some point that comes up and gives it another look - we just try to give the coaches the options that we can give them. 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. But you know, players get hurt. One guy goes on LTIR, and it changes. So unfortunately, it's hard to plan for it. And you certainly don't want it to happen, but it does happen. And you just need to have the pieces down below to come up and fill in. But like I said, maybe one of those guys at some point is a piece that comes up and helps the bottom six. I think Jeff has done some good things. I think at times he's played well. And I think I said it last time, I think there's times where he can play better than he's played. But he's a big faceoff guy for us, he's a penalty killer for us, and he fills a role.
