On Sunday, a day after the Flyers moved to sign Brian Elliott to replace Steve Mason and had otherwise a fairly quiet July 1, Ron Hextall took some time to chat with reporters. The Flyers have released a partial version of that media availability on their website, and you can listen to it by clicking play on the video above. For your convenience, we have written out Hextall’s answers to the questions he was asked here. Enjoy!
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On Brian Elliott (presumably, as the question was cut off from the video):
He’s got a really good work ethic. He’s played in a tandem in St. Louis prior to Calgary there, he’s played very well in a structured system, so a lot of the things that we felt were important with the guy that we signed, Brian kind of fit the criteria. In saying that, Steve Mason did a real good job for us for a number of years here, and we certainly wish Mase nothing but the best.
On the things he likes about Elliott:
When I was out in L.A. there we played against him in the playoffs a couple of times, and obviously we played them a lot, so I saw the West a lot back then. Quite honestly … first of all you do your homework, you find everything out about the kid [Ed. note: kid?], he’s a real good team guy, which is important. His work ethic is at a high level, his compete’s at a high level, teammates want to play for him. Just a lot of things when you look at goalies, that you look for, and Brian checked a lot of the boxes off.
Again, the fact that he played in a tandem — Michal Neuvirth is a good goalie, and the fact that Brian played well in a tandem played into it. So there’s a number of things that we looked at, and in the end we felt like Brian was the best fit.
On Anthony Stolarz’s current standing:
I think Anthony Stolarz has improved every year in the American League [AHL]. If the situation was different here, if we had Marty Brodeur here, that might have been a consideration. But as I mentioned to you guys earlier, with Neuvy’s track record of injuries, we didn’t feel comfortable with bringing Stolie in at this time. I think the guy we all forget about is Alex Lyon, he’s done a pretty good job down there too. So those two guys, they’ll go back down there and battle it out, and we’ll see where it goes, but they’re two very good young goalies, and we’ll see how it goes this year with them and make adjustments as we go along.
On whether any more moves may be made to bring someone in:
Yeah, I don’t suspect we’ll bring in anybody else. I mean, you certainly have to keep an eye and an ear out there for something that’s out there that might make you a better team, but we’ve got other restrictions that … y’know, you can’t just do whatever you want. There’s a salary cap, there’s a roster limitation. And again, as I stated a few days ago, we don’t want to box our young players out. Three years ago we set a course, and we’re staying with that course. And part of that course is draft and develop. Part of drafting and developing is yes, making your players earn it, but also not boxing them out with older veterans. We feel like there’s opportunity on our hockey club for young guys to step up, and quite frankly we expect them to and we have multiple players that can step up.
On potential training camp battles, such as one that looks like it may be shaping up between Scott Laughton and Mike Vecchione:
That’s going to have to play out. As I’ve said multiple times, Scotty had a terrific year. He improved a lot. I think his focus and professionalism, quite honestly I think Scotty really grew up a lot last year. So Scotty’s certainly going to be given an opportunity to make the hockey club, along with Michael. Michael showed some good things towards the end of the year. But again, I can’t predict what’s going to happen here. As I said at the end of the year, if a couple of young guys supplant a veteran, so be it. We’re not thrilled with the way last year went, and if a veteran comes in and he’s not ready to go, if he’s not hungry, if he’s not in shape, then there’s no guarantees.
