Despite missing the playoffs in three of the last five seasons, the Philadelphia Flyers are not in rebuild mode - if you ask general manager Ron Hextall, anyway.

Yes, the Flyers did pick with the second overall selection in this year's draft, but that was mostly due to a stroke of good luck, as the Flyers were a competitive team that finished only seven points short of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. A result that Hextall feels is a strong indication of the direction his club is going.

"You’re not rebuilding when you’re competitive," Hextall said, according to Sam Carchidi of Philly.com. "A rebuild, to me, is when you go to the bottom and you pick high, high, high - and essentially, you’re not trying that hard to win. That’s not in our DNA. We want to win. We want to win as many games as possible."

"We’re not going to go to the bottom of the league and pick first overall for four or five years. That’s no way to build culture. Our vision was to stay competitive, and build, and get younger - and that’s exactly what we’re doing."

Landing Nolan Patrick with the second overall pick obviously goes a long way to ensuring that vision come to fruition, but, Hextall realizes that at the end of the day, execution on the ice is all that matters.

"I can sit here and tell you 85 points, 105 points, but it really doesn’t mean anything," said Hextall. “What’s (important) is when our team starts the season and we go do it. Do we expect to make the playoffs? Of course we expect to make the playoffs."

" ... I’m comfortable saying we expect to make the playoffs because our team on paper is good enough to make the playoffs."

The Flyers drop the puck on their 2017-18 season Oct. 4 in San Jose.

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