Madden Monday: All Ron Hextall accomplished at trade deadline for Penguins was 'undo his prior mistakes'

When it comes to assessing Ron Hextall’s moves at the trade deadline, I agree with what the Pittsburgh Penguins general manager said Friday evening. I do think he “made the team better” by acquiring Mikael Granlund, Nick Bonino and Dmitry Kulikov.

I also think they are better because they cut some dead weight that had been hanging around the team’s neck all season, when Hextall put the likes of Brock McGinn and Kasperi Kapanen on waivers.

But if they are better, it’s not by much.

It’s certainly not enough to make them good enough to win a first-round playoff series for the first time since 2018. Nor are they good enough to feel secure in assuming the Penguins will lock up a playoff spot in the first place.

During this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden of TribLIVE and 105.9 The X advanced a similar opinion.

“If they are better now, it is marginally so,” Madden said.

Part of the reason Madden is less than enthused about Hextall’s deadline deals is that he would’ve preferred to see the team acquire Arizona defenseman Jakob Chychrun. Before the deadline passed, Chychrun ended up in Ottawa. The Senators have 68 points. That’s good for being within three points of the Penguins for the eighth and final playoff spot.

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“I would have felt good about the trade deadline if he had gotten Bonino and Chychrun, as opposed to Bonino, Granlund and Kulikov, who didn’t play at Florida,” Madden said.

In particular, Madden is underwhelmed by the Granlund move.

“They were already old. He’s 31. They were already small. He’s 5-foot-10. They were already in cap trouble, and he has two more years at $5 million,” Madden said.

Big picture, Madden advanced a similar notion to one that I floated on Friday, which is that Hextall did everything he could to attempt to clean up a mess he created for himself last offseason.

“The indictment is that he spent the trade deadline correcting his prior mistakes. I keep hearing that had he had proper cap room available at the proper time, that he would’ve made the Chychrun trade,” Madden said. “If so, then he needed to dump those guys — Kapanen, McGinn — months ago. Or at least try to start that process. So I think he had a very average trade deadline. But you have to consider that he was undoing his prior mistakes.”

Madden and I also spent a lot of time discussing goalie Tristan Jarry, the Saturday night loss to Florida and the Pens’ place in the Eastern Conference wild-card race. Plus we talk about the Steelers draft needs and Mitch Trubisky’s fate.

Listen: Tim Benz and Mark Madden talk Penguins and Steelers