Ronald Jeffrey Hextall (born May 3, 1964) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and executive. He was most recently the general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). Hextall was a goaltender for 13 seasons for the Philadelphia Flyers, Quebec Nordiques, and New York Islanders from 1986 to 1999. He served as assistant general manager for the Flyers for one season, and was promoted to general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers, replacing Paul Holmgren on May 7, 2014. He held this position for four and a half seasons. Before this he served as assistant general manager for the Los Angeles Kings, who won the Stanley Cup in 2012.
Hextall played 11 of his 13 seasons over two stints with the Flyers. He holds several team records and is a member of the Flyers Hall of Fame. During his rookie season in , he was awarded the Vezina Trophy as the league's top goaltender and led the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Final. Despite the Flyers' loss to the Edmonton Oilers in seven games, he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' most valuable player, making him one of only six players to win the trophy in a losing effort. Injuries in the middle of his career contributed to a drop in his playing ability; as a result, he was traded on three occasions in the off-seasons between 1992 and 1994 to the Nordiques, the Islanders and then back to the Flyers. Upon his return to Philadelphia, Hextall regained confidence and form, recording goals against averages (GAA) below 3.00 in each of his five subsequent seasons – the lowest of his career. He retired from the NHL at the end of the season.
Hextall became the first NHL goaltender to score a goal by shooting the puck into the opponent's empty net, against the Boston Bruins in the season. The following season, he became the first goaltender to score in the playoffs, by shooting the puck into the Washington Capitals' empty net. His mobile style of play, in which he provided support to his defencemen by coming out of the goal area to play the puck was revolutionary, and inspired future generations of goaltenders, such as Martin Brodeur. He was also known for being one of the NHL's most aggressive goaltenders: he was suspended for six or more games on three occasions, had more than 100 penalty minutes in each of his first three seasons, and set new records for the number of penalty minutes recorded by a goaltender in the NHL.
Early life Ron Hextall was born on May 3, 1964, in Brandon, Manitoba, the third and youngest child of Bryan and Fay Hextall. Hextall is a third-generation NHL player – his grandfather, Hall of Famer Bryan Hextall, played 11 seasons with the New York Rangers, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1969. His father, Bryan Hextall, Jr., played in the NHL for 10 seasons, most notably for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and his uncle, Dennis Hextall, played 14 seasons of NHL hockey, not staying with any one club for longer than five years. During his youth, Hextall saw his father and uncle often roughed up by the Philadelphia Flyers, whose aggressive style of play for much of the 1970s gave the team the name "Broad Street Bullies". Hextall later reflected that during this period he "hated the Flyers."
Because of his father's career, Hextall's education was far from stable; each year began at Brandon, and once the hockey season commenced in October, he moved to a school nearer to where his father was playing. At school, he achieved B and C grades, putting in the minimum amount of effort, but his mind remained on hockey, and specifically goaltending. "Everybody else would be working and I'd be drawing pictures of Tony Esposito and Jimmy Rutherford," he recalled. Hextall came to mostly enjoy the constant moving, later saying "I got to hang around NHL rinks. What more would I have wanted?"
Although both his father and grandfather played as forwards, his father was happy for him to play in goal, but insisted that he try other positions to improve his skating: Bryan believed his son would have made a good defenceman. Hextall's mother thought her son's love for hockey exceeded that of her husband's teammates and believed it would drive him to achieve his aim of goaltending in the NHL. Each summer, Hextall received training at the hockey school at which his father taught, but the hockey programs in Pittsburgh and Atlanta were sub-standard, and meant that during his teenage years, he was behind many of his fellow players. He describes himself as "[not] what you would call real polished" in his first year of junior hockey, aged 17.
Playing career
Junior hockey Hextall began his junior hockey career in 1980 with the Melville Millionaires in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL). In the 1980–81 season, his solitary season with the club, he played 37 games with a goals against average (GAA) of 6.57. In one game that season, against the Prince Albert Raiders, Hextall faced 105 shots, and made 84 saves, a performance described as brilliant by the Regina Leader-Post. Although the Millionaires lost 21–2, the reporter noted that if it was not for Hextall, the Raiders could have scored "34 or 35". Millionaires teammate Mark Odnokon praised his performance, particularly the way "he lived up to his responsibilities and stayed in there until the end." In 2009, Hextall was inducted as one of the inaugural members of the SJHL Hall of Fame.
Hextall returned to Brandon for the 1981–82 season, playing for the Brandon Wheat Kings in the Western Hockey League (WHL). He played 30 regular season games for the Wheat Kings, during which he recorded a GAA of 5.71. The Wheat Kings reached the playoffs but were swept four games to none (4–0) in the first-round by the Regina Pats. Hextall played in three of the games, but completed only two and had a GAA of 9.32. His team was regarded as a poor one at the time by critics and Hextall had to battle in each game. Flyers' scout Gerry Melnyk said he could understand why many teams did not rate Hextall: "There were teams who thought he was loony." Melnyk claimed it was these attributes which he was attracted by, and he felt that Hextall could fit in well with the Flyers. Subsequently, the Flyers chose Hextall in the sixth round of the 1982 NHL Draft, 119th overall.
After his selection, Hextall remained with Brandon for two further seasons. He played 44 games in 1982–83, recording a GAA of 5.77 during a season in which the Wheat Kings did not qualify for the playoffs. The following year was his most successful in the WHL: a GAA of 4.29 across his 46 regular season games, which included 29 wins – more than in the previous two seasons combined. He played in ten of the twelve playoff games, recording five wins and five losses, with a GAA of 3.75. During the 1983–84 season, Hextall set a record for the most penalty minutes accumulated by a goaltender, being assessed for 117 minutes during the regular season.
Professional hockey Hextall arrived at the Philadelphia Flyers training camp in 1984 with the expectation of playing in the NHL. However, the Flyers subsequently sent him to their farm team in the International Hockey League (IHL), the Kalamazoo Wings. Although disappointed, Hextall was now playing at a higher level than at WHL and made his debut in professional hockey. He played 19 games for Kalamazoo, recording six wins and a GAA of 4.35. During the season, he moved to the Flyers' other farm team; Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League (AHL), where he played 11 times, with four wins, and a GAA of 3.68.
In the following season, Hextall remained with Hershey, appearing in 53 games during the 1985–86 season. He recorded 30 wins and the lowest GAA average of his career to that point, 3.41. The Bears finished the regular season as league leaders, and won the John D. Chick Trophy as the South Division Champions. Hextall lived up to his aggressive reputation in the Conference final, played against the St. Catharines Saints, fighting three different members of the opposition side during a single bench-clearing brawl. The Bears advanced to the Calder Cup final, having beaten the New Haven Nighthawks 4–1 and the St. Catharines Saints 4–3. In the final, they faced the Adirondack Red Wings, who won the championship by four games to two. Hextall played 13 games in the playoffs, of which his team won five, and his GAA was 3.23. He was named as the Dudley "Red" Garrett Memorial Award winner, as the AHL's outstanding rookie player. Looking back on his time in the AHL, Hextall reflected that despite his initial disappointment at not being selected to play for the Flyers straight away, "the two years that I spent in the American League got me to the point where I was sure I could be a No. 1 goaltender at the NHL level."
Philadelphia Flyers (1986–1992)
First three seasons
After his performances in the AHL, Hextall was invited to the Flyers' training camp as a long-shot. His play in four exhibition games convinced Flyers' coach Mike Keenan to call up Hextall to the NHL and to play him in the opening game of the 1986–87 season, against the Edmonton Oilers. Hextall conceded a goal from the first shot he faced in the game but allowed no further shots past him, leading his side to a 2–1 victory. Hextall continued to display the aggressive nature with which he had always played, swinging his stick at Brad Smith and Troy Murray early in his first NHL season. Despite these swipes, Hextall claimed at the time that, "I used to be worse, I've learned to control my temper." Two months after making these comments, Hextall was involved in a fight with opposing New Jersey Devils goaltender Alain Chevrier. Having lost to the Devils, the Flyers wanted revenge for Steve Richmond's punch on Kjell Samuelsson at the end of the game; Hextall targeted Chevrier in a fight labelled by Chico Resch as "like a heavyweight against a lightweight." Hextall and seven other players were fined $300 each for their part in the brawl.
In 66 regular season games during his rookie year, Hextall posted a GAA of 3.00 and recorded 37 wins. He was awarded the Vezina Trophy for the most outstanding goaltender by the NHL general managers, but he was second in the voting to Luc Robitaille for the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded to the "player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition". Hextall led the Flyers to top their Conference, and win the Prince of Wales Trophy. The Flyers progressed to face the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final, having beaten the New York Rangers 4–2, the New York Islanders 4–3, and the Montreal Canadiens 4–2. Following their series victory over Montreal, Flyers captain Dave Poulin identified Hextall as the team's leading performer. In the fourth game of the Finals, Hextall received two penalties, first a ten-minute misconduct penalty for "expressing his displeasure at the fourth Oiler goal," and later a five-minute penalty for slashing Kent Nilsson. In the latter incident, Hextall had received a slash from Glenn Anderson for which there was no call from the referees, and Hextall sought revenge by striking the back of Nilsson's knees. After the game Hextall expressed remorse for striking the wrong player but not for his action:
If somebody slaps you in the face, you're going to slap him back, it's not like he gave me a touch to jar the puck. What's he going to do next, break my arm? I'm sorry it was Nilsson and not Anderson I hit, but I just reacted. At the time, it seemed the right thing to do.