First things first, why Hakstol? I as much as everybody else when they head the news of the hire said "who?". However after further analysis and getting to know a little more about the new Flyers bench boss I started to come around to the new hire. When you look at the way the game is played today it's speed, speed, speed, and more speed. Just look at the final four teams that were left standing in the playoffs this year; the Blackhawks, Ducks, Rangers, & Lightening. All four teams possess size, speed, and skill both up front and on the blueline that simply outmatches the rest of the competition in the league.
When Berube took over three games into the 2013 season one of the main points he kept preaching to the team & media was that he wanted his players to be in the best shape possible, focus on puck movement and a speed game in a system that required the team to constantly keep its feet moving with puck support from the forwards without the puck. The Flyers roster was no where near the correct personnel to carry out that system but Chief surprisingly was able to get the team into the playoffs after an abysmal start to the 2013 season. To Berube's credit he somewhat laid the groundwork for Hakstol in getting this current roster in great conditioning while helping them begin the transition into a speed & skill team Hakstol wants them to be.
Listening to what Hakstol had to say about his coaching philosophies and system got me really excited about the direction of where this team is heading in the next few seasons. I could easily see why he was Hextall's man and why he continued to pursue him for the job even after Hakstol turned it downed twice before finally giving in. With the influx of young talent coming through the pipeline on defense, Hextall knew exactly what he wanted out of HIS coach. Let's be reminded that he inherited Berube when he took over for Holmgren along with the countless abysmal contracts Homer left him too. However Hextall preached patience all along in his first year at the helm, knowing he had no wiggle room against the cap, he went out and made small low-risk financial signings that wouldn't cripple the team in the long run (Del Zotto, Schultz, White, Bellemare). However losing Hartnell hurt, a major cog in the locker room as well as a perennial 20-30 goal scorer with 40-60 points a season which in todays NHL with scoring being down is a huge loss in production. Especially considering the guy replacing him in Umberger only managed to net 15 points till he finally was shut down due to injury. With that said that deal was something that had to be done from a salary cap standpoint. Hartnell was one of the few players with big years left on his contract that had any value to other teams. Hartnell still has 4 years left on that contract to Umberger's two at the start of next season and the Flyers have to re-sign Voracek, Brayden Schenn, Couturier, and Raffl after the 2015-16 season.
Those four players mentioned above are all due for substainal pay rasises espeically if one of Schenn, Coots, or Raffl has a breakout season. Voracek will almost definitely be in the 7.5-8 million dollar cap hit range when his deal gets extended which basically doubles his current cap hit of 4.2. Lets say Raffl (also don't forget his 21 goals were scored with basically no power play time and in only 67 games) with a full season and power pay opportunities could realistically be a 25-30 goal scorer makes his next contract quite the pay raise from the 1.1 million he's due to make next season. Then you throw Schenn and Couturier on top of all that and things can start to get dicey when it comes to the Flyers salary cap with so many bloated contracts to players that don't play at the same level of their pay.
I'm beyond excited to see how Hakstol deploys his personnel come training camp and the regular season. Whose going to be the first line LW next to Giroux and Jake? Does he split his two superstars up much like what the Blackhawks do and attain more balance in the forward group? Will Couturier become the teams second line center and make the offensive jump in his career that we've been waiting for, or does Hakstol move Schenn back to his natural center position? Where does Scott Laughton, Matt Read, and Lecavalier fit into all this? Among all those questions posed we didn't even get to what might happen with the defense and the possible trades that should be coming by draft day. At least one or two players on defense have to go for cap and roster reasons.
When it's all said and done the Flyers still have a ton of questions that need to be answered come draft/free agency time let alone by training camp. With that said it's beginning to feel like the Flyers finally have some stability with Hextall at the helm. The slew of young talented prospects on defense seem like the perfect fit for how Hakstol wants his blueline to play with speed and skill. Also it's hard to not be excited about the 7th overall pick they have coming up in a deep draft as well as Tampa's 29th or 30th pick. The Flyers have a shot at getting two really good prospects to plug into their system in the first round alone. It's definitely different times in Flyer nation, building through the draft with scouting and good prospects rather than trading them for veterans with bloated contracts. In the new NHL you can't trade draft picks and developing prospects while going out and signing the best players in free agency with the salary cap the way it is. Let's just be glad it only took 10 years for Snider to realize this and brought in Hextall when he did before we had a slew of more Andy Macdonald's, Lecavalier's, Luke Schenn's, and the countless other players whose contracts and play leave us scratching our heads every night.