Penguins hire Ron Hextall as general manager, Brian Burke as president of hockey operations

The last time the Penguins hired a former goaltender with ties to the organization to be their general manager, it was a resounding success as it led to two Stanley Cup titles.

They’re hoping for similar results with their most recent hire.

On Tuesday, the Penguins tabbed Ron Hextall to be the 11th full-time general manager in the history of the organization.

Additionally, long-time NHL executive Brian Burke has been hired as director of hockey operations.

Hextall will report to Burke, and Burke will report to team president and CEO David Morehouse.

Patrik Allvin, who served as interim general manager following previous general manager Jim Rutherford’s departure on Jan. 27, will return to his previous role as assistant general manager.

A long-time nemesis of the Penguins as a member of the rival Philadelphia Flyers, Hextall takes over almost two weeks after Rutherford, who directed the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2016 and 2017, surprisingly resigned from the position for reasons that remain unclear, at least publicly.

What is clear is that Hextall has the same mandate that Rutherford had:

Win now while franchise pillars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are still in the fold.

“You’ve got players in Malkin and Crosby and Letang,” Hextall said via video conference. “We want to be as good as we can be right now with three of the best players in the world.”

How Hextall and Burke pursue that, remains to be seen.

“It’s not like (Burke) and I are going to walk in and change everything,” Hextall said. “When something is running very well, you don’t change things. You might tweak a little here or tweak a little bit here. … It’s been a very well run organization.”

This will be Hextall’s second chance as a general manager. He was previously the Flyers’ general manager from May of 2014 through November of 2018. During his four full seasons in Philadelphia’s front office, the Flyers reached the postseason only twice, losing in the first round each time, most recently in 2018 to the Penguins. Overall, Hextall had a 165-128-58 regular record in that position.

Hextall’s time as Flyers’ general manager came to an abrupt end due to a philosophical disagreement with upper management that sought to speed up how quickly Hextall’s rebuilding process unfolded.

This season, the Flyers are one of the NHL’s better teams with an 8-3-2 record. Of the 23 players currently on their active roster, 14 were acquired during Hextall’s tenure in the front office, primarily through the draft.

“It was tough obviously at the time and it took some time to get over (being fired by the Flyers),” Hextall said. “But once you sit back and reflect, you know there’s things that you’ll do differently. There’s things that you’d change. In life, since I was young, you always learn from your mistakes, whether you’re a player, a scout or a manager. I’ve certainly looked back at everything and there’s certain things I would change, of course.”

Most recently an advisor to the Los Angeles Kings’ hockey operations department, Hextall, 56, served as assistant general manager for that franchise from June of 2006 until June of 2013. During his time with the Kings, he helped rebuild the franchise in the late 2000s and was instrumental in Los Angeles winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in 2012. By June of 2013, he had joined the Flyers as an assistant general manager but was roundly credited in being influential in the Kings winning a championship once again in 2014.

Hextall pushed back on the notion that his expertise is primarily in rebuilding teams.

“I know I’m kind of looked at as a builder,” Hextall said. “This situation is different than the one we took over in (Los Angeles) or in Philadelphia. I’m not a one-trick pony. I’ll work with (Burke) to, again, become the best team that we can become today.”

While Hextall’s time as a goaltender with the Flyers who was prone to outrageous outbursts — particularly during Game 5 of the 1989 Patrick Division final when he chased popular Penguins forward Robbie Brown for the mere transgression of scoring a goal — is what most hockey fans west of the Susquehanna River remember with regards to his connections to the Penguins, he did spend some of his formative years in the 1970s living in the Pittsburgh suburbs.

A member of the esteemed Hextall family, which has ties to the NHL dating back to the 1930s, Hextall is the son of Bryan Hextall, Jr., a forward for the Penguins for parts of five seasons in the 1970s, including three campaigns as a teammate with Rutherford, also a goaltender during his playing career.

Hextall lauded his predecessor.

“I’ve known Jimmy actually since I was a child in Pittsburgh,” Hextall said. “He was very good to me. He gave me his mask, he gave me his skates, he played road hockey with me. He was my biggest idol when I was a child. And I think he did a terrific job as (Penguins general manager).”

Burke returns to an NHL role after several years working in media, primarily with Sportsnet. Working at the NHL level in various roles dating back to the late 1980s, Burke has served as general manager of the Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks, Anaheim Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs. Additionally, he has spent time working for the NHL as executive vice president and director of hockey operations.

The 65-year-old Burke’s most recent role in an NHL front office was as president of hockey operations with the Calgary Flames from September of 2013 through April of 2018.

His only Stanley Cup championship came in 2007 with the Ducks. Two years earlier, the Ducks lost the NHL’s draft lottery and a chance to draft Crosby.

“I just missed on Sidney Crosby,” Burke quipped. “Well, now I’ve got Sidney Crosby. It’s good to be here.”

Burke sounded he was running for public office when asked what lured him into joining the Penguins’ front office.

“I was happy with my life (in media),” Burke said. “I like living in Toronto. But you get to work for the Pittsburgh Penguins, man. This is Cadillac-class here. This is not your run-of-the-mill team. This is not a run-of-the-mill ownership. … I’m so excited to move to Pittsburgh. It’s one of the best sports towns on the planet. It’s the best sports town in America.

“To me, it was a no brainer.”

With a new brain trust in place, the Penguins, off to a sputtering 5-5-1 start to the season, must now figure out the best route to returning towards the upper tiers of the NHL as a Stanley Cup contender.

“We’re looking to make the Pittsburgh Penguins the best team we can this year,” Hextall said. “We’ll see where it goes. We’ll see how good we are. We’ll see how our players respond and we’ll address things as we go along. In terms of the future, you’ve obviously always got to look at the future but you have to look at the present. And the focus right now is making the Pittsburgh Penguins the best we can right now until the end of the year.”

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