Progress report: Looking back at Ron Hextall’s early moves with the Penguins

Ron Hextall has been in charge of the Pittsburgh Penguins for a little less than a year and so far has lived up to his reputation for being a patient general manager. Moves have been few-and-far between and he has been the exact opposite of what we became used to with Jim Rutherford, and even to an extent Ray Shero.

There have been no panic moves.

There have been no dramatic overhauls of the roster.

There has been no real major blockbuster trade.

Just carefully planned moves that have made varying degrees of impact.

Let’s take a look at them and the progress with them so far.

The Jeff Carter trade

Hextall’s first major move came at the deadline this past season, and so far it has been the most…