Flyers’ Struggles Trigger Bobby Clarke’s Attack on Ron Hextall

The Blame Game has begun.

Philadelphia Flyers senior advisor and all-time great Bobby Clarke has gone on the offensive with his club taking another step backward following the disastrous 2020-21 campaign.

On this week’s ‘Cam and Strick’ podcast, Clarke took dead aim at former general manager Ron Hextall, who was fired in 2018.

Hextall’s History

As a player, Hextall was one of the greatest goalies in Flyers history. In his rookie season in 1986-87, he won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender. He also got the Flyers to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final against Wayne Gretzky and the powerhouse Edmonton Oilers. That earned him the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

At that time, Clarke was the Flyers’ general manager. He presided over the club for two terms, from 1984 to 1990 and again from 1994 to 2006. While Clarke was in charge, the Flyers made 16 playoff appearances, won eight division titles and reached the Stanley Cup Final three times.

Hextall played 489 of his 608 career NHL games over two stints in Philadelphia, beginning and ending his career in the City of Brotherly Love. In 1992, then-GM Russ Farwell included Hextall in the massive package that brought Eric Lindros to Philadelphia. Two years later, just a couple of months after re-taking control, Clarke re-acquired him from the New York Islanders.

Following his retirement in 1999, Hextall joined the Flyers as a pro scout. After three years, he was promoted to director of player personnel. He held that title for four seasons before accepting the position of assistant general manager with the Los Angeles Kings in 2006.

Hextall spent six seasons in Los Angeles, working with the Kings and their AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs. In 2012, he earned a Stanley Cup ring.

In 2013, Hextall returned to Philadelphia, spending one year as an assistant GM under Paul Holmgren. He took over the general manager’s chair in 2014, and lasted just over four seasons before he was fired on Nov. 26, 2018.

The Prospect Pool

Before Hextall arrived, the Flyers had a reputation for sacrificing their future to try to keep their competitive window open. It seemed like Philadelphia was in the mix on nearly every major free agent and every big trade, and wasn’t adverse to giving up high draft picks once a target was established.

That being said, first-rounders Claude Giroux (2006), James van Riemsdyk (2007), Sean Couturier (2011) and Scott Laughton (2012) were all in the fold when Hextall came on board. Those four players remain important parts of the Flyers’ forward group today, although van Riemsdyk is now on his second tour of duty.

Preaching patience, Hextall set about re-building the prospect pool — and had some success.

The key players who were drafted while he was general manager:

• 2014: Travis Sanheim, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Oskar Lindblom
• 2015: Ivan Provorov, Travis Konecny
• 2016: Carter Hart, Wade Allison
• 2017: Nolan Patrick, Morgan Frost
• 2018: Joel Farabee

The Fall Out

When Hextall was fired, then-president Paul Holmgren said the core issue was a difference in philosophy.

Clarke’s podcast comments to Cam Janssen and Andy Strickland suggest that the turning point came at the 2017 draft. Hextall apparently went against consensus in selecting Nolan Patrick second overall, and dealt away Brayden Schenn to St. Louis without consulting his scouting group.

“We get the second pick in the draft and we end up drafting Nolan Patrick. None of our scouts wanted Nolan Patrick,” Clarke said. “I don’t know where Patrick should have gone after his performances in Brandon, he’s a pretty good player, but they wanted Makar. Of course he went next. Now he’s a superstar and Patrick hasn’t played … but Hextall made that choice himself.”

For the record, Miro Heiskanen actually went third in that draft, to Dallas; Makar was taken by Colorado with the fourth pick. Either way, both defensemen have established themselves as impact players with have bright futures ahead. Patrick’s injury history has hampered his development. Now, the journey continues in Vegas, where he landed as part of the fallout from this summer’s so-far ill-fated acquisition of Ryan Ellis.

The Trades

As for the Schenn trade, it brought back the first-rounder picks that turned into Frost (2017) and Farabee (2018) — not a bad return. But Stanley Cup envy is apparently a very real thing. Schenn earned a ring in in his second season in St. Louis in 2019 — although that didn’t happen until after Hextall was fired. According to Clarke, Hextall’s dismissal came just over three months after the GM whiffed on another deal that helped turn the Blues into champions — the acquisition of Ryan O’Reilly.

“Our scouts were so mad at Hexy for doing [the Schenn deal],” Clarke said. “We also had a chance to get O’Reilly from Buffalo. We didn’t. Obviously that was the manager’s decision, but that was another one that the scouts weren’t consulted on.”

The Flame-Outs

And Clarke wasn’t done.

“There are other choices that were made in our draft that we’re paying for,” he said. “We’ve got two or three first-round picks that are never going to play. That’s why we’re struggling, Hexy made some huge mistakes.”

In 2016, the Flyers struck gold with Carter Hart in the second round. But with their 22nd pick, they selected big Russian forward German Rubtsov. Now 23, Rubtsov is toiling for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this season, where he has five points in 23 games.

Two years later, Philadelphia hit the jackpot with Farabee at No. 14. Five spots later, though, they used their own selection on forward Jay O’Brien. He has dealth with injuries and several course-changes in his development. Now in his junior year at Boston University, O’Brien is no longer considered a top prospect.

And then there’s Frost. He’s currently on the NHL roster, with six points this season and 38 career NHL games played to date. But even as he plays games under interim coach Mike Yeo, it’s clear to all involved that the development of the 22-year-old, especially at center, remains a work in progress.

The Road Ahead

Clarke’s nuclear comments this week may have been quite deliberate — offering a bit of a shield to current GM Chuck Fletcher while shifting the blame back onto Hextall.

Fletcher’s own job security could now be at risk as another season slips away.

Last year, the Flyers finished 19th overall, with a .518 points percentage and a record of 25-23-8.

This year, heading into Thursday night’s road game in Boston, Philadelphia sits 24th in the league standings. They’re now two games under .500 with a record of 13-15-7 and a points percentage of .471, and nine points out of the second wild-card spot.

Unless things start to change in a hurry, this could be another lost year. Clarke’s outburst may be setting the stage for a rebuild announcement — and for a sell-off at the trade deadline that could include the departure of Claude Giroux.