A huge bomb just exploded on the Philadelphia Flyers side!

According to him, former GM Ron Hextall has a lot to do with it, due to his poor decisions. He allegedly made monumental decisions for the organization, without even consulting his colleagues, including selecting Nolan Patrick with the second pick in the 2017 draft over a certain Cale Makar.

"He alienated everyone from the start. He closed the doors and locked them... He was the boss. Nobody else was involved in the process. We had the second overall pick and ended up drafting Nolan Patrick. None of our scouts wanted Nolan Patrick. I don't know where Patrick should have ended up after his performance in Brandon. He's a very good player, but they wanted [Cale] Makar, who of course was drafted right after. He's a superstar now, whereas Patrick doesn't have great stats. Hextall made that decision on his own."

"And he made other picks in our drafts that we pay the price for," added Clarke, who is now a senior consultant with the Flyers. "We have a couple of first-round picks that will never play. That's why we're in trouble, Hexy made some big mistakes."

Nolan Patrick was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights last offseason in a three-team deal. He has played only nine games this year in Vegas, collecting three points in the process.

Clarke is currently a senior consultant with the Flyers, so he sees pretty much everything that goes on in the organization.

In particular, he didn't take kindly to the trade of Brayden Schenn from the Flyers to the Blues in the 2017 NHL Draft.

"It's also worse. Nobody knew about it, he did it on his own. Our scouts were at the draft and they were so angry that Hexy did this. We also had a chance to get [Ryan] O'Reilly [from the Buffalo Sabres] and we didn't do it. That was obviously a decision for the general manager, but it's another one that the scouts weren't consulted on."

The Flyers cut ties with Hextall in November 2018. He is now the head of the Pittsburgh Penguins, which have been doing very well this year since February 2021.

The Pennsylvania organization has just missed the playoffs three times in five years, which is totally unacceptable considering their team well-endowed in all positions.

Credit:
RDS