Ron Hextall returned to Philadelphia in 2014 not as the fiery goaltender who once terrorized opponents, but as the architect of a new era. Fresh off two Stanley Cups in Los Angeles, he promised Flyers fans something they hadn’t heard in decades: a plan. No shortcuts, no splashy moves, no mortgaging the future. It was a bold departure from the franchise’s history of urgency and aggressive moves. But in the city of Philadelphia, where patience wears thin and results matter, Hextall’s unbending vision didn’t spark a renaissance. Instead, it made the Flyers a team trapped between past glory and future promise, never moving forward.
Ron Hextall the player
It seems like everyone has a favorite Ron Hextall story. He was selected in the sixth round of the draft by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1982, but didn't make his NHL debut until 1986. He spent the years in between developing in juniors with the Brandon Wheat Kings and then the Hershey Bears, who were the Flyers AHL affiliate at the time. Although he was older than most rookies when they make their NHL debut, Hextall immediately took the league by storm.
His aggressive style - charging out of the crease to play the puck, throwing checks, swinging his stick - made him both a fan favorite and a nightmare for opponents. In his rookie year alone, he won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender, and the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, despite the Flyers losing the Final in seven games to the Edmonton Oilers. He would go on to play 489 games in orange and black, winning 240 of them - a Flyers record that stands to this day.
As memorable as Hextall’s highlights were, his career in Philadelphia wasn’t without turbulence. After his spectacular rookie season, he battled injuries and inconsistency, as well as the pressure of carrying a team in constant transition. He also found himself in contract disputes with the Flyers, most notably in the early 1990s when negotiations turned ugly and strained his relationship with management. In 1992, after a string of suspensions and shaky play, the Flyers cut ties and dealt him to the Quebec Nordiques in the blockbuster trade that brought Eric Lindros to Philadelphia.
Hextall spent one season in Quebec and another with the New York Islanders before finding his way back home. The Flyers re-acquired him in 1994, and while he wasn’t the same goalie who’d terrorized the league in the late ’80s, he provided steady veteran play. He helped backstop the team to the 1997 Stanley Cup Final, though that run ended in a sweep at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings. He retired in 1999 as one of the most unique goaltenders in NHL history. He was part star, part enforcer, part entertainer, and a Flyer for life.
Hextall's transition to the front office
In a move that has become Flyers tradition, Ron Hextall slid straight from the crease into management. With the Flyers, he started as a scout and then director of player personnel. He earned a reputation for finding talent and having a methodical approach, that reputation would bring him to Los Angeles where he reunited with Dean Lombardi as assistant general manager and general manager of the Manchester Monarchs, the Kings AHL affiliate at the time.
It was in LA where Hextall learned what it takes to build a championship caliber team through stockpiling draft picks, investing in player development, and to consider long term implications of win-now moves. The Kings were in the middle of a rebuild, focused on development and drafting without rushing prospects or trading away the farm. In Manchester, Hextall was part of nurturing the young talent that would eventually become key parts of the championship teams, like Jonathan Quick, Anze Kopitar, and Drew Doughty. This is when his notoriety for keeping players in the minors to develop far past when other teams would have them face NHL level talent really started to come through.
At that point in time, the Los Angeles Kings were affectionately referred to as Flyers West. Not only did Lombardi and Hextall have deep Philadelphia ties, but the roster soon reflected the heavy Philadelphia influence. In 2011, the Kings landed Mike Richards in a blockbuster trade with the Flyers, and months later reunited him with Jeff Carter, acquired from Columbus. Those two, along with former Flyers Justin Williams and Simon Gagne, became critical to the Kings’ Cup runs in 2012 and 2014.
The foundation Hextall helped to oversee in Manchester provided the backbone, the addition of the former Flyers provided the finishing touch. The Kings blend of homegrown depth and bringing in known producers led to two Stanley Cups for the Kings and validation for Hextall.
The second return to Philadelphia
Armed with all of the lessons learned from LA and Lombardi, Hextall made his return to Philadelphia, this time not as a player but as the assistant general manager to Paul Holmgren. It was clear immediately that Hextall was being groomed for the general manager role, as Holmgren was floundering.
By 2013, the Flyers were caught in a cycle of flashy signings and quick-fix trades that rarely addressed the organization’s long-term needs. Holmgren’s tenure was defined by bold swings - the Carter and Richards trades, the Ilya Bryzgalov contract, the Shea Weber offer sheet - but the payoff never came. The team was bloated with bad contracts, thin on prospects, and struggling to stay competitive.
The Flyers needed a reset and Hextall was the antithesis of Holmgren. Where Holmgren was impulsive, Hextall was calculating. Holmgren chased the next big star or the one difference maker for the Flyers, Hextall preached patience and internal development.
In the spring of 2014, Hextall inherited a team with aging veterans, little to no salary cap flexibility, and a fanbase that was growing impatient. The Kings’ blend of homegrown depth and familiar Philadelphia grit became the model that Hextall believed could work anywhere. For him, the lesson was clear: patience, discipline, and development could build champions. He watched Lombardi resist the temptation of shortcuts, and he saw that trust rewarded with two Stanley Cups in three years. Hextall was convinced this was the only way forward.
The problem that arose was a simple one, Philadelphia was not Los Angeles. The fans, the media, and ownership are more intense here than what he experienced on the west coast. There was a demand for immediate results. The 2014-15 season was another disappointment that would cost head coach Craig Berube his job.
Hiring Dave Hakstol
The expectation was that risk-averse Hextall would bring in a familiar face as head coach, and that wasn't exactly wrong, but the choice he made was out of left field. Dave Hakstol was a familiar face to Ron Hextall, as he had coached his son Brett Hextall in North Dakota. Hakstol had never coached an NHL game, or even AHL game. He had a very brief career as a defenseman at the University of North Dakota and in the ECHL - he retired in 1996.
From the start, Hakstol was out of his depth. His rigid, system-first philosophy never seemed to translate from the college game to the NHL. The Flyers lacked creativity, struggled with consistency, and looked like a team skating through quicksand. Young players were often sidelined for reliable veterans, although the only thing most could be relied upon was to stay mostly upright on the ice. He lacked the ability to make adjustments or communicate his expectations with his team. When opponents exposed flaws in his system, he rarely had an answer. His lineup decisions often defied logic, burying promising young players on the fourth line, leaning too heavily on underperforming veterans, and riding goaltenders into the ground. Instead of nurturing the talent Hextall had promised would be the future, Hakstol’s approach seemed to stifle it.
Hextall stood by his man. When most Flyers fans expected him to make changes to improve the team, he doubled down. It seemed Hextall believed pulling the plug on the Hakstol experiment would be admitting his wait and see philosophy was flawed - which it was - so he defended his coach and preached the same patience as his rebuild. The good times were coming, allegedly.
Predictably, the Flyers hovered in mediocrity, never good enough to make noise in the playoffs but never bad enough to let the bottom fall out and get a high draft pick. It was the hockey equivalent of purgatory, every season felt the same: long stretches of uninspired play, brief flashes of hope, record setting streaks (both winning and losing), and disappointment in the spring. The fans could see the problem, the media could see the problem, heck, even the players could see the problem. But Hextall wouldn't budge. He clung to his process with a stubbornness that bordered on delusion, even as the walls closed in.
The beginning of the end
Now, not everything Hextall did was bad. There was some good in his tenure as General Manager. He was able to clear out the albatross contracts that were sinking the team financially, untangling the mess Holmgren left for him. His draft record was pretty solid - with some huge airballs in the mix (looking at Jay O'Brien) - bringing in Travis Konecny, Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, and Joel Farabee. He also brought a sense of professionalism to the Flyers front office, which rankled lurkers and hangers-on.
For every step forward, there seemed to also be a step sideways. The cap space situation was less dire, but the roster stayed stagnant. The prospects were promising, but they were left to develop in the minors for far longer than what other teams would allow. The front office was modernized, but the on-ice product looked stuck in neutral. Hextall’s best work laid a foundation, but his refusal to adapt meant he never got to see success in Philly.
The breaking point
By late 2018, the Flyers were spiraling and the tension was at an all time high. The team had opened the season poorly, Hakstol’s seat was red-hot, and the fanbase was boiling over. Every press conference became a referendum on Hextall’s vision, with reporters pushing him to explain when, or if, the “patient rebuild” would finally produce results. Hextall never wavered. He clung to the same, stale talking points - prospects needed more time, the future looked bright, patience, etc. etc. To everyone listening, it no longer sounded like a plan, it was an excuse. Excuse for poor performance, excuse for poor executing, excuse for poor coaching. For an organization that was historically always in contention, this plan felt like the end.
People were calling for the team to be sold, for the coach to be fired, for every player on the roster and in the cupboards to be traded. The anger and resentment wasn't just about losing, it was about not being able to see a path forward with the current stars, Jake Voracek and Claude Giroux, and the promising prospects that were languishing in the minors. There was little progress and the franchise was stuck in neutral.
In the end, it was Ron Hextall's inability to see the forest through the trees that led to him being fired on November, 26 2018. His dismissal wasn't about a single game - although the Flyers had just lost to the Maple Leafs - but his inflexible vision that didn't reflect the reality around him.
Ron Hextall promised to restore the Flyers through patience and development, but his refusal to bend left the franchise adrift. What worked in Los Angeles became paralysis in Philadelphia, and what he saw as discipline looked like inaction from everyone else. He left behind more cap space than when he started, a better prospect pool, and a modernized front office, but no real progress where it mattered most. For a team and a city that demands urgency, Hextall’s inflexible vision didn’t just stall the Flyers, it put them in a hole they still haven't recovered from.
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