Read between the lines: takeaways from Ron Hextall addressing state of Flyers

VOORHEES — Even though the Flyers are in a rebuild, losing a first-round playoff series didn’t sit well with anyone.

Certainly the veteran players know it’s another year that they spent without hoisting the Stanley Cup. Coach Dave Hakstol was clearly frustrated, saying, “This last series against Pittsburgh was a winnable one.” General manager Ron Hextall also admitted that he’s feeling the pressure of orchestrating the plan to make the Flyers champions, the plan he sold to the team’s late owner, Ed Snider.

Here are a few of the top takeaways from Hextall’s availability with the media Thursday.

Addressing the Wayne Simmonds situation

The longtime right wing and alternate captain revealed Wednesday that he had what he called a “mid-line pelvic tear” when he came into training camp, although he didn’t know it until the players were tested on the ice before camp began. He also played through a broken ankle, pulled groin, had several teeth removed and only missed seven games because of a ligament tear in his thumb that required a pin in his hand.

How could the Flyers let him play through all that?

“Certain injuries there’s nothing you can do,” Hextall said. “The non-weight-bearing bone, there’s nothing you can do. He either plays or he doesn’t play. The wrist, he sat out. As far as the core injury, he came to camp with it. We didn’t know anything about it prior to that. As long as you can plow through the pain, you can play. There’s no perfect way because if you get surgery at that point, you’re weak all year and if you don’t, you’re weak all year. There’s no necessarily right or wrong there. Wayne’s tough. He’s got a high pain threshold.”

Hextall said that Simmonds will likely go under the knife next week to have what he called “abdominal surgery” to repair the initial pelvic ligament tear.

It will be interesting to see how Simmonds recovers in what will be a contract year. The player said he would love to sign an extension with the Flyers — he’s eligible to do that July 1 — and end his career in Philadelphia, but noted hockey is a business and it’s not all up to him.

“We like Wayne. We’d like to keep Wayne. We’d like to sign Wayne,” Hextall said. “Whether we can or not, I have absolutely no idea. He’s a good player. He’s a big part of our group. He wears our uniform well. Whether we can come to an agreement at some point or not, whether it be July 1 or next June 3, I don’t have those answers. I really don’t.”

Who’s in goal?

It clearly bothered Hextall that Michal Neuvirth kept missing time to address a slew of injuries.   

“It can be disruptive, for sure,” Hextall said when asked how it affected a tandem with Brian Elliott. “That hurt us this year for sure.”

Based on that, it sounds like the Flyers would be more than willing to move Neuvirth if the right situation came along. They knew he had an injury history when they signed him and still think he can steal games when he’s healthy, but they may have reached a patience level with how often he’s not healthy. So has Neuvirth, who said he will change trainers for the second straight summer in the hopes of keeping him healthier in-season.

“Oh you have no idea,” Neuvirth said when asked about the frustration level. “It’s probably the hardest for my fiancée because when you’re hurt, you’re not in a good mood.”

He will go under the knife next Tuesday and have both hips scoped.

Who could help if not Neuvirth?

Hextall never committed to moving on from Neuvirth, but made it clear that the goalie tandem next season needs to be stronger. He also spoke a lot about Carter Hart, who the team is hoping will be a franchise goalie, but didn’t leave the door open very much that Hart could step in next season. He rightfully pointed out that there are very few goalies to come into the league at age 20, which Hart will be this fall, and not have some very obvious growing pains. The most recent goalie to do it without flaming out is Tampa’s Andrei Vasilevskiy, but he only played 16 games his rookie year.

“It’s a hard position to play,” Hextall said. “The more experience you get by kind of going up the ladder one step before the next step…do you take three steps or do you take one step? For long-term success, we look at Carter Hart or Sam Morin and Travis Sanheim. We’re kind of planning for 10, 15 years. How is this kid gonna be the best for the next 10 or 15 years? Not is he gonna be great for two weeks for us? We’re looking long-term with these kids. That’s the development process.”

Assuming Hart starts in the American Hockey League next season, it sounds like the Flyers will have more decisions to make. Pending restricted free agents Alex Lyon and Anthony Stolarz would have been a tandem for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this season, but Stolarz was recovering from surgery to his meniscus.

Even if the Flyers re-signed both, they can’t send either to the ECHL because they aren’t on entry-level contracts.

“We’ve got some sorting to do here,” Hextall said. “We only have two spots down there, so right now it’s tough. There’s an odd man out.”   

Draft plan

This one flew under the radar, but it was interesting that Hextall, when asked about options in June’s draft, didn’t just brush off the idea of moving up. The Flyers will have the 19th pick in the draft and also own St. Louis’ pick, which will almost certainly be 14th. If the Blues win the draft lottery Saturday and move up into the top three they won’t have to give up the pick, but then the Flyers own their 2019 first-round pick and get a third-rounder in 2020.

“It’s a solid draft is the way we look at it,” Hextall said. “We’ve got our meetings coming up so we’ll be a little more informed at that point, but I’ve seen enough players where it’s a good draft and we’re gonna get a couple good players if we make those picks. In terms of options, it gives you more options. If you want to move up, you certainly have … I would envision having a chance to move up. And we’re a little bit more defined in terms of the pieces that we have that have a good chance of playing. It narrows our scope a little bit where you say, ‘OK, if we move up to this spot, we can get this player who’s a good fit for the group of prospects that we have.’ We’ve got more options.”

Dave Isaac; @davegisaac; 856-486-2479; disaac@gannett.com