The Pittsburgh Penguins restructured their front office yesterday, hiring Ron Hextall as general manager and longtime NHL executive Brian Burke as the director of hockey operations.
The two will step in for Jim Rutherford, who resigned on January 27th. The Penguins did not have a director of hockey operations under Rutherford’s regime.
Hextall says he believes the Penguins have a good team already, and he is going to spend some time evaluating the on-ice product.
Hextall is a former GM of the Philadelphia Flyers, the team for which he played the majority of his 13-year career. He says he’s ready to get to work in his second chance as an NHL GM.
Hextall says that with a core group of players who have won multiple Stanley Cups, he knows the Penguins have the talent to win now.
Brian Burke has had a colorful career in the NHL, serving as general manager at Hartford, Vancouver, Anaheim, and Toronto. For the last two years, he has been in media, working primarily with the Canadian network Sportsnet. He says he jumped at the opportunity to work for the Penguins.
Burke said on Sportsnet in November that he believed the window has closed on the Penguins winning another Stanley Cup with Crosby, Malkin, and Letang. In 2012, he scoffed at the notion that there was any such thing as a “Pittsburgh model” for winning the Cup. He sounded a different tune yesterday.
At Penguins practice yesterday, Mike Matheson returned to full participation after having to leave the ice the day before following an on-ice collision with a teammate. Zach Aston-Reese also was a full participant, skating on the third line with Teddy Bleuger and Brandon Tanev. He’s not played yet this season after shoulder surgery. Forward Jared McCann did not skate. He was injured last Saturday against the Islanders and is termed “day-to-day”.
There were no games in the NHL East yesterday. The Flyers and Capitals were postponed because of new covid issues with Philadelphia.
The Penguins will be back in action tomorrow when they visit the Islanders in Brooklyn.
Comments