Last year at this time, under then a fresh change of general manager, no one really knew what to make or expect of what Ron Hextall. Known factors around the trade deadline included:
- 1) Hextall was positive about his team and confident they were pretty good
- 2) The Penguins were right at the top of the salary cap with little ability to bring in much salary
- 3) The Pens didn’t have a lot of solid draft picks or prospects to offer in a trade, and wanted to keep the best of what they had
- 4) Hextall still found a way to make an unexpected move to bring in a great fit in Jeff Carter
Not much has changed in a year, the first three of the points above about the Penguins in the spring of 2021 also still apply verbatim about the Penguins and the sense of their management strategy in the spring of 2022.