Randy Miller of NJ.com: Flyers GM Ron Hextall on the Scott Hartnell trade:
“No question. The one thing I’ll never do is I’ll never not do something because a guy is a popular player. I’ve got to do what’s best for this franchise and sometimes that’s not the popular thing. Scotty was a good Flyer. He’s a good player. He’s still a good player. It’s just one of those things that I felt was right for the franchise, so I went forward with it. But, yeah, that was one of those ones that tugs at you.”
Hextall on Kimmo Timonen’s blood clot:
“Yeah, I think it is. I think once he gets over here in a couple of weeks and sees our doctor … The reality of it is he’s 39 years old and he’s had a setback. He can’t have any physical contact for a period of time. Until we hear from the doctors, I’m not sure when, but it’s a long-term thing.”
Hextall on moving a top prospect to make the team better:
“If we get to a point where I think I can put us in the top five or six teams, yeah, we’ll look at a deal like that. But I’m not going to do anything that jeopardizes the future of this franchise. There’s going to be today, tomorrow and five years from now. It’s a calculated risk, but the risk-reward has got to be there to make one of those deals. I just envision it as we’re going to get better every year and we’re going to build this to where we’ve got a seven-to-eight year window where we’ve got a chance at winning (the Stanley Cup). We all know that if you have a five-, six-, seven-, eight-year window and you win one or two (Cups), you’re pretty damn happy because a lot of things happen. There’s a lot of parity in the league. When you get goaltending on both sides, when your top players don’t play their best, when you get a couple of injuries … there are so many intangibles in the playoffs that come into play that you can’t just sit and say, ‘We’re going to build for a one- or two-year run’ or ‘we’re going to sell the farm to try to win this year.’ There are two many things that can come into play that can go against you at this point. It was different years ago. But with the cap, it’s a very balanced league.”
