Bobby Clarke Rips Flyers, Ron Hextall for the Job He Did in Philadelphia

[Phil]

 

Quote

“When Hexy came in, he alienated everybody right away,” Clarke said. “He shut his door, he locked the doors, he was the boss. Nobody else was part of it.”

 

Clarke’s issue is that Hextall forced the selection of Nolan Patrick with the second pick from the Brandon Wheat Kings instead of defenseman Cale Makar from the Brooks Bandits.

 

“We have the second pick in the draft and end up picking Nolan Patrick. None of our scouts wanted Nolan Patrick,” Clarke insisted. “I don’t know where Patrick should have gone after his performances in Brandon, he’s a pretty good player. They wanted Makar. Of course, he went next. Now he’s a superstar. Hextall made that choice himself.”

 

Actually, Makar went fourth to Colorado. The Dallas Stars selected Finnish defenseman Miro Heiskanen third. But close enough. Please continue, Bob.

 

“There were other choices that were made at our drafts that we’re paying for,” he continued. “We’ve got two or three first-round picks that are never going to play. That’s why we’re struggling. Hexy made some huge mistakes.”

 

Quote

On draft day 2017, he traded Brayden Schenn to the Blues in exchange for Jori Lehtera, the No. 27 pick in the 2017 draft and a conditional first-round pick in the 2018 draft.

 

“That was just as bad,” Clarke said of the trade. “Nobody knew it. Hexy made that on his own. All of our scouts were at the draft. Our scouts were so mad at Hexy for doing that. We also had a chance to get (Ryan) O’Reilly from Buffalo, but we didn’t. Obviously that’s the manager’s decision, but it’s another one that the scouts weren’t consulted on.”

 

O’Reilly had 23 points in 26 games with the Blues, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy.

 

Schenn has posted career highs and won the Stanley Cup in St. Louis. Lehtera played two seasons for the Flyers then jumped to the KHL. The Flyers drafted Morgan Frost with the No. 27 pick. He has bounced between the taxi squad/AHL and NHL. The Flyers also received the No. 14 pick in the 2018 draft. Joel Farabee came with that selection. He’s become a 20-goal scorer in Philly.

 

https://triblive.com/sports/flyers-exec-bobby-clarke-rips-penguins-gm-ron-hextall-for-the-job-he-did-in-philadelphia/

[SaveByRichter35]

You just gotta love to see it

[Sod16]

I wouldn't expect any discretion or classiness in utterances from perhaps the biggest A-Hole in NHL history.

[Karan]

Must be a slow news day if we're reading about one cock complaining about another cock. 

[RichieNextel305]

Fuck Bobby Clarke. All the guy has ever done is whine and point fingers. For an executive who has never won a thing for that organization, he sure has a lot to say.

 

Im sure lots of executives have a lot of moves they shouldn’t have made, or lots of guys people wanted to draft instead of the guys they wound up drafting. It is what it is. Throwing that out is so absurd.

 

Like Bobby Clarke never made a bad trade, bad signing or bad draft pick. Give me a fucking break.

Edited January 12, 2022 by RichieNextel305

[Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc]

I'm calling bs on the "no one wanted Patrick, everyone wanted Makar" take. Nico and Patrick was the consensus #1&2 and most scouts had Heiskanen over Makar.

 

He didn't even remember the draft order lol

[Pete]

1 hour ago, Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc said:

I'm calling bs on the "no one wanted Patrick, everyone wanted Makar" take. Nico and Patrick was the consensus #1&2 and most scouts had Heiskanen over Makar.

 

He didn't even remember the draft order lol

Not remembering the draft order is irrelevant, at the time they were rolling with Giroux and Coutourier down the middle and had absolutely no defense in the pipeline (which is what we see today), and a lot of people questioned them taking Patrick and not a defenseman at the time, IIRC.

[Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc]

1 minute ago, Pete said:

Not remembering the draft order is irrelevant, at the time they were rolling with Giroux and Coutourier down the middle and had absolutely no defense in the pipeline (which is what we see today), and a lot of people questioned them taking Patrick and not a defenseman at the time, IIRC.

Not really, when he forgot that another defenseman was taken after their pick and before Makar was taken. Did he think Makar was taken before Heiskanen or did he just completely forget Heiskanen?

 

And you always go consesus BPA at #2, not for positional needs. And even if that's not the case, I would think most of the scouts had Heiskanen>Makar.

 

Anyway, don't really care. Love to see that Flyers fucked it up. Imagine if Devils and Flyers switched Nico/Nolan with Heiskanen/Makar 

[Pete]

3 minutes ago, Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc said:

Not really, when he forgot that another defenseman was taken after their pick and before Makar was taken. Did he think Makar was taken before Heiskanen or did he just completely forget Heiskanen?

 

And you always go consesus BPA at #2, not for positional needs. And even if that's not the case, I would think most of the scouts had Heiskanen>Makar.

 

Anyway, don't really care. Love to see that Flyers fucked it up. Imagine if Devils and Flyers switched Nico/Nolan with Heiskanen/Makar 

I mean, it's not like he missed big, Miro went 3 and Cale 4.

 

When the top 4 are that close, you it's anyone's board on who's BPA.

 

But agree, i don't care they got fucked LOL.

[Dunny]

That draft was one of the worst in memory. Makar then Robertson in the 2nd, and a whole bunch of filler.

 

 

[Pete]

1 hour ago, Dunny said:

That draft was one of the worst in memory. Makar then Robertson in the 2nd, and a whole bunch of filler.

 

 

And Miro...

[Sharpshooter]

I love it. But, also, Bobby, I remember when you insisted on getting Pavel Brendl from us in the Lindros trade. LOL! Fuck that franchise.

[Kevin]

Thank God he sucked.  I wouldn't have liked to have to face O'Reilly and Schenn regularly along with Giroux and Coutourier.  Those games would have been a grind. 

[Sod16]

In reality, most No. 1 overalls, and most No. 2s as well, are consensus picks and your rarely see outliers or off the board moves for those two.

[ThirtyONE]

Clarke is a cunt. If he hated the Patrick pick, he sure waited a long time to speak up. Hell, Hextall didn't leave his job for another year and a half after that pick. 

 

Sounds like a bitter old piece of shit who's blaming his problems/failures on revisionist history. Not remembering the draft order doesn't help his case either, lol. 

[Sod16]

His breaking of Valerie Kharlamov's ankle was a national disgrace to Canada.  He used goons on the Flyers to protect him and allow him to pull dirty shit.

[Albatrosss]

hate clarke with passion.  i wont even capitalize his name.  

[Ozzy]

I always liked Rick Macleish