Today, the NHL has gone the route of building a core of players to be the main piece for contending for the Stanley Cup. Numerous teams such as the Blackhawks, Maple Leafs and Penguins dedicate a certain amount of dollars to pay for this core to help build around to be competitive.
Former Flyers and Penguins general manager Ron Hextall was evaluating Pittsburgh at the time and felt that there needed to be a shake-up in the core of the Penguins. Their window of winning a Stanley Cup was beginning to close as they had an amazing run for up to 10 years with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Chris Letang.
As we all know, Hextall's tenure ended abruptly with the Penguins this season when he was fired along with Brian Burke. The Penguins are currently finishing their search for their new general manager and president of hockey operations who could land former Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas as he just became available recently.
