Ron Hextall Fired as Flyers General Manager

The Philadelphia Flyers fired Ron Hextall as general manager after the team started the season with a 10-11-2 record (Second worse in the Metropolitan Division). In the last six games, the club had a 1-4-1 record and recently suffered a 6-0 defeat against the Maple Leafs. After the embarrassing loss in front of the Hockey Night in Canada crowd, the Flyers upper management took action on Monday to relieve Hextall from his duties.

Team president Paul Holmgren later stated one of the reasons Hextall’s duties were relieved. “We thank Ron for his many significant contributions, but it has become clear that we no longer share the same philosophical approach concerning the direction of the team. In light of these differences, we feel it’s in the organization’s best interests to make a change, effective immediately,”

Hextall had a different vision with upper management on how the Flyers should play like. His opinion matched against Holmgren and Flyers’ legend Bobby Clarke. In recent years the Flyers had a different approach on playing style by avoiding the penalty box. The recent new-look Flyers were opposite of the intimidating Broad Street Bullies days. It was no doubt that Hextall’s expectations were opposite to the former Broad Street Bully himself, Bobby Clarke.

Hextall is the Flyers all-time leader in games and wins (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Hextall is the former Vezina-winning goaltender that is an all-time leader in games (489) and wins (240) for the Flyers franchise. In the summer of 2013, Hextall was hired as assistant general manager and director of hockey operations. Before his hiring, he was the assistant manager for the 2012 Stanley Cup winning Los Angeles Kings. His hiring was one of the key moves for the Flyers 2013 offseason. In May 2014, he was promoted to be general manager by Holmgren. During his time as general manager, he had an overall record of 165-128-58 and only made the playoffs twice in 2016 and 2018.

Now that the Flyers are making moves, it is now rumored that former general manager of the Los Angeles Kings, Dean Lombardi, to be one of the candidates to fill the vacant position in Philadelphia. Lombardi won two Stanley Cups with the Kings and could help revive this young Flyer squad return to playoff contention.

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