The Philadelphia Flyers dismissed Ron Hextall on Monday, ending his four-and-a-half-year run as general manager after a particularly ugly 6-0 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs two days earlier.

Hextall became an icon for the franchise with his fiery temperament, but his approach to his GM work was significantly different. The 54-year-old preferred a patient, draft-and-develop-internally mentality that felt foreign in tumultuous Philadelphia.

Reflecting on his tenure with the Flyers, here are four blunders that played a major role in his firing.

Dealing Brayden Schenn for Jori Lehtera and two 1st-round draft picks

To be fair to Hextall, not many of his trades were disastrous for the Flyers. But this one - which sent Schenn, a big-bodied, skilled forward to the St. Louis Blues for Lehtera - seemed to go egregiously against the spirit of Philly and its NHL team.

Here, you had Schenn, a talented youngster who had scored 25 goals for the Flyers in his final season with the club, traded for Lehtera, who had never scored more than 14. Sure, there was a salary-cap element that slightly favored Lehtera - he had one fewer year on his contract, which was about $400,000 less costly than Schenn’s deal - but did that really offset the production differential?

While the Flyers did acquire a pair of first-round picks in the deal - selecting center Morgan Frost and winger Joel Farabee - both players are still not close to contributing with the NHL club. And Hextall won't be around to see how they make out.

You have to give him credit for untangling the Flyers from their previously messy cap situation. But in the process, Hextall may have squeezed a little too tightly on the Schenn/Lehtera deal and wound up hurting Philadelphia’s ability to be a true offensive juggernaut.

Lehtera - with one goal and three points this year - hasn't been the answer in that department, while Schenn’s eight assists and 13 points in 18 games would've been a welcome sight in Flyers land. And although one bad trade isn't enough to fire any NHL GM, Hextall’s most notable deal evidently did not work out as he’d envisioned.

Refusing to go with a proven No. 1 goaltender

For years, if not decades, the Flyers’ adventures in goaltending have been a story that could be filed in either the horror, comedy, or tragedy section of a bookstore. Things haven't changed this season: due to injury or substandard play, Philadelphia already has had five different goalies play at least one game, and not one of them has stepped up to claim the starter’s role.

Indeed, in the last game Hextall served as GM - when Philly was in Toronto - the Flyers were sunk less than halfway through the first period by poor goaltending. The fact Hextall - one of the top goalies of his generation - failed to acquire a netminder who could carry a team is an ongoing mystery.

That's not to say he needed to pull off some blockbuster trade for Carey Price. For example, Carter Hutton was languishing in the backup role in St. Louis until Sabres GM Jason Botterill plucked him out of there and made him Buffalo’s top netminder. Goaltending matters, and Hextall’s biggest mistake may have been his inability or refusal to acquire a goalie capable of being elite.

Hiring Dave Hakstol

When Hextall brought in Hakstol to coach the team in May 2015, it was clear the Flyers were about to be a more defensive-minded group. He was successful at the NCAA level, but that doesn’t always translate to the NHL.

Though Hakstol has guided the Flyers to a playoff appearance in two of three years on the job, he has yet to coach Philadephia to a playoff series win and has begun this season 10-11-2. Although a coach is only as good as his goalie, the reality is, in a pressure-cooker environment like Philly, coaching four seasons without notable success (or even clear progress) usually doesn’t end well, and certainly doesn’t signal multiple future contract extensions.

Standing by Dave Hakstol

Hextall's firing could ultimately come down to his decision to stick with Hakstol.

In the statement announcing Hextall’s dismissal, Holmgren mentioned philosophical differences - those differences could have included Hakstol remaining behind the bench.

Hockey can be a cold game, and sometimes you have to take the road less traveled if you wish to survive. It appears Hextall chose his relationship with Hakstol over his employment as GM. And while that’s his decision, it ultimately means he won't be able to see out his vision in Philadelphia.

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Few people love to break down every element of the game more than NHL coaches, and even within that subset, few coaches have loved analyzing hockey more than Ken Hitchcock. A one-man Wikipedia for the sport, Hitchcock has a complete resume and his pedigree cannot be minimized.

But, is he the right man to step in and try to salvage the latest in what has become a maddening string of NHL seasons for the Edmonton Oilers? There are doubts, and they’re not small ones, either.

This isn’t to suggest the NHL game has passed Hitchcock by - it hasn’t. The 66-year-old posted a 42-32-8 record in 2017-18 with the Dallas Stars, his second and final stint with the team he led to a Stanley Cup victory in 1998-99. Following that season, Hitchcock sailed off into the sunset and into retirement, almost 20 years after he’d steered them to a championship.

This was hockey synchronicity in a manner most hockey men never experience. Most coaches are unceremoniously shown the door long before they believe their “best before” label says they ought to be. It speaks volumes about the respect Hitchcock has earned.

But here we are today, and the giant embedded emotional and professional tractor beam that comes along with being a coach has pulled Hitchcock back into a job exactly 221 days after his retirement. The Oilers brought him in Tuesday after firing highly respected Todd McLellan the same day, and now, it’s truly full circle for the Edmonton native.

In a way, it’s admirable to see how deeply he loves his life’s work, and how hard it is for him to get it out of his blood. That’s what hockey lifers do: they want to be there until their last breath, gliding around on a pad of ice, drawing up the next potential forward combination or set offensive play.

But the job of good organizations isn’t to permit even the most accomplished hockey lifers to stay around until it’s clear they’ve stayed too long. And this is where the Oilers are today. Searching, yet again, for answers for a roster that has one of, if not the greatest player on the planet in Connor McDavid. Edmonton GM Peter Chiarelli, now well beyond his third year on the job, has used one of his remaining credibility bullets (most of the others have been used on trades we’ll get to below) to hand the job to Hitchcock and pray he’ll succeed where so many have failed since the summer of 2006.

However, if McLellan - who did guide the Oilers to their first playoff appearance since that summer - couldn’t find a way to make Edmonton’s roster jell and propel consistently, who’s to say Hitchcock can? In Hitchcock’s almost six years in St. Louis, he had a far better defense corps than Chiarelli has handed him. You can also argue that Hitchcock’s Blues had a more balanced group of forwards.

True, Hitchcock hasn’t had a player like McDavid since Mike Modano in Dallas - and the reality is, McDavid is a better, faster competitor than he ever was. Now, he's being asked to find a system that makes the most of his star's talent, and will also be tasked with rejuvenating the career of moribund winger Milan Lucic and coach the massive letdown that is Jesse Puljujarvi.

That sounds like an order so tall, only the coaching equivalent of a McDavid could succeed. Instead, the keys are being handed to Hitchcock, almost entirely due to his brand-name recognition. Having a marquee bench boss brought in at this point feels like a shield being applied to the Oilers’ issues, the grand majority of which have been created by Chiarelli.

It wasn’t McLellan who signed Lucic to a seven-year, $42-million contract in 2016, nor was it him who put all his marbles behind goalie Cam Talbot; it wasn’t McLellan who made the infamous Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson transaction or who moved star Jordan Eberle out of town, with just journeyman Ryan Spooner to show for it.

The footprints on those deals all belong to Chiarelli, the man responsible for sending McLellan overboard. It really should be the GM in Edmonton whom the knives came out for today, not McLellan, who’ll be back coaching an NHL team soon enough.

Even with his Hockey Hall of Fame-worthy history, it will most likely be Hitchcock who moves along from this Oilers job relatively soon. He’s earned his name by demanding work ethic from his players, but given the state Edmonton’s roster is in, Hitchcock’s demands of himself would have to include a good deal of miracle work.

Hitchcock doesn’t need to be put through the wringer for an extended period at this point in his life, and frankly, Oilers fans don’t need to be the wringer for what has been an interminable, unacceptable period. A couple years of trying to untangle this group of players from the mess they’re in now will be more than enough for him, and if he can’t, he’ll either self-extricate from this situation, or the new GM - the next time the Oilers find themselves in this mess, there should be a new GM - will fire him and end his NHL career in more common fashion.

Hitchcock is a hell of a conversationalist, but frankly, the conversation in Edmonton has become so sickeningly familiar, not even he can find a way to put a rhetorical bow tie on an abominable on-ice situation.

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This week, Carey Price carved out another spot for himself in the Montreal Canadiens’ record book when he passed Hockey Hall of Famer and Habs' legend Patrick Roy for second on the storied franchise’s all-time wins list. Beating the Boston Bruins on Saturday gave Price career regular-season win No. 290 as a Canadien.

Naturally, people are going to want to compare the two. And while it’s certainly true any team would be blessed in the extreme to have employed either Price or Roy, if you were forced to choose one, who would you pick?

For me, it would be Price. And I say that in total and complete acknowledgement of everything Roy achieved, both in Montreal and in his eight subsequent seasons with the Colorado Avalanche. Roy has four Stanley Cup rings clogging his ears, three Conn Smythe Trophies to his credit, three Vezina Trophies on his mantle, and was named to the NHL’s First All-Star Team four times. When it comes to accumulating accolades, Roy has few peers, and even fewer in the NHL’s goaltending community.

But as the hockey world has changed under the salary cap, so too have the situations NHL goalies have to operate in. And ultimately, I think that’s where Price comes out looking better than Roy in the modern age. Over the dozen years Price has played in Montreal, he’s shown the patience of Job, both on the ice and off of it, in a manner that has always served the team more than himself. Most notably, Price has kept his temper when the Habs went through three GMs and multiple new blueprints for success, whereas Roy went nuclear a mere 40 days into working under only the second NHL GM he’d ever known.

(Granted, that second GM was Rejean Houle, who dealt Roy to Colorado in one of the worst trades in league history, so clearly, Roy knew something was rank in Denmark.)

Price may not have any Cup rings to dazzle you with, but he’s a tremendous soldier, and one you’d always want to build a team around. He’s gritted his teeth and kept working hard even when GM Marc Bergevin traded away his good friend and star defenseman P.K. Subban. He maintained his composure through the “Price vs. Jaroslav Halak” Era, and proved then-GM Pierre Gauthier made the right decision. No matter the trajectory Montreal found itself on, Price was happy simply to be a part of the group. You never got the sense his ego was somehow affecting the steering of the ship, and I don’t think the same is true of Roy.

Again, this isn’t to say I wouldn’t be happy to have Roy between the pipes for my side. The emotion that drove him to stomp around the Canadiens’ bench like a masked mastodon that fateful night in December of 1995 was probably what made him as successful as he was. But there’s something to be said for constant calm in the face of any storm. Price’s unflappability is what you want out of goalies. Regardless of the situation, regardless of whether or not he’s particularly pleased with a move his GM has made, Price has skated out to Montreal’s net and performed to the best of his terrific ability. He deserves credit for that.

Besides, it’s harder to win in today’s NHL. There are more teams battling for a championship than when Roy was in his prime. But Price still has a number of honors to his name. He led Canada to an Olympic gold medal at the 2014 Sochi Games - being voted the tournament’s top netminder - and in 2015 he won his first Vezina and first Hart Trophy.

Roy never won a Hart - which isn’t a slander on his play as much as it is a recognition of the talent he had surrounding him in Montreal and Denver. Price, meanwhile, has played on many different types of teams: mediocre ones; ones that made it to the Eastern Conference Final; and even a couple that didn’t make the post-season. It’s not his fault Canadiens' management has bungled what could have been a year-in, year-out Cup contender. Nothing that Bergevin has done has chipped away his talent level.

That’s part of what makes it so difficult to truly judge which of the two is better. Roy existed in a smaller, less watered-down NHL. And he had GMs in Serge Savard and Pierre Lacroix who assembled some of the better squads in the history of the game. Roy benefited from that, undoubtedly. Compare some of the defense corps that Roy played behind with those that Price had in front of him and you get an even better appreciation for Price’s save percentages over the years.

You can’t blame Price for the caliber of his teammates or the follies of management. In the end, if you’re a Canadiens fan, all you can do is be thankful that Roy was a central component of your team’s glorious past, and that Price has been in your team’s net for more than a decade and likely will remain there for at least eight more years.

If you have to make a choice between the two best goalies of a team’s modern day, you’re going to wind up with an outstanding choice in Montreal. And that’s more than most NHL franchises can say.

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In the annals of Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending history, they don’t come much more resilient, athletic, and classy than Curtis Joseph.

Now 51 and a hockey parent who resides just outside of Toronto, Joseph lives forever in the hearts of Leafs fans who’ll never forget his key role in the franchise’s 1998-2002 successes - including two Eastern Conference Final appearances - and individual feats including being a two-time finalist for the Vezina Trophy and being named a finalist for the Lester B. Pearson Award in 1999.

An Olympic gold medalist and the first NHL goalie to register at least 30 wins for five different franchises, Joseph just released his first book, "CUJO: The Untold Story of My Life On and Off the Ice." Co-authored with longtime hockey journalist Kirstie McLellan Day, Joseph’s book is a wry, moving account of his turbulent upbringing as an adopted child, his rise through the game’s ranks, and his most notable achievements in the planet’s best league.

Joseph took time Monday to speak about the book, John Tavares joining the Leafs, Joseph’s NHL days (and his time in Toronto in particular), and what he’d change about the game.

Adam Proteau: The book is a fun read. You’ve made your chapters short and vibrant, describing your journey you take and some sides with people that you’ve played with over the years. When you were mapping out the book, how did you want to connect with readers?

Curtis Joseph: Well, most people didn’t know about the way I grew up. I was embarrassed about my childhood early on, and it was hard for me to write a book because I’m a private person. And you want to tell a true story, you want to make sure you’re not hiding anything, so you know you’re going to have to open up. But my wife, Stephanie, we’ve been married six years, and she was the one who said, "You know, I love your story. I’m glad you don’t come from money. Your story is great, you need to embrace it, it’s so good." She’d tell me that and I’d think, "You know, you’re right, it’s made me who I am."

What I want people to get from the story is perseverance and inspiration. I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy, I always have been. And it’s really helped me become who I am. I was the last person you ever thought would make the NHL.

AP: It’s funny you phrase it like that. In talking to (Leafs president and Hockey Hall of Famer) Brendan Shanahan earlier this year, he told me nearly the same thing verbatim - that, among a group of kids he hung out with playing hockey, he would’ve been the last person you would’ve guessed would’ve been an NHLer, let alone an elite NHLer. But with the state of goaltending and the fact there always will be more candidates than available positions, do you have to be more resilient as a young goalie?

CJ: Actually, my goals weren’t that lofty. I never thought I’d make it, either. My goal as a teenager, was to go to (university/college). I couldn’t pay for it, and my only shot was getting a scholarship. It really took until I was 21 years old to get one. I remember going out to Notre Dame and getting a scholarship offer from North Dakota when I was there. And I was like, "Oh my God, this is it. I’ve made it. This is what I’ve been dreaming of."

Then once I got there, the scribe with the team told me there were NHL scouts there to see me. I said, "What?! What do you mean? I just got here!" I wasn’t dreaming about making it at all.

AP: A friend of mine who played goalie at the pro level said it was always like walking on a wire all the time. Is it true that, for that job, you have to be living in the moment every day?

CJ: Oh yeah, you know how bad it can be, and how embarrassed you can be. Like, when I’d drive into Toronto, you could cut the tension with a knife. You could just feel it driving in. It’s the playoffs, Game 7 against Ottawa, and you’re thinking, "Oh man, I better not let one in from center tonight. I’ll be roasted."

AP: That choice to come to Toronto - people talk about (agent) Don (Meehan) and (then Leafs-GM) Ken (Dryden) meeting at an ice cream store downtown and getting the deal done and signing you as an unrestricted free agent. But you’re still the one driving the decision, right?

CJ: Obviously, l leaned on Donnie for years as a friend and agent to help make decisions, but it was always up to me, and I’m so glad I made that decision. It was like, "Wow, this is Toronto, they have interest in me." I knew they had Felix (Potvin) already, then I was like, "Wow, how amazing would that be to play in Toronto?" I hadn’t thought about it, because they were not in the (free agent) game at that point. It was Philly-Philly-Philly for me, and they had the Legion of Doom, and they needed a goalie. And then that door closed.

Once it became Toronto, I started embracing it and thinking how great this would be. But I’ll always remember Felix - he was such a pro. I felt bad for him, and I respected him as a goaltender. He was such a pro to me, and it was tough for him, but he was great to me.

AP: With that Leafs team, with all those names Torontonians hold dear now, what was the effect of their personalities on you?

CJ: It was so much fun right off the get-go, partially because expectations were low. I think they’d missed the playoffs for two years in a row, so expectations were very low, and we started winning right away. We started winning and winning and winning, and we’re having fun, we’re having the time of our lives and we’re doing it with a bunch of great personalities. Mats Sundin, Derek King, Kris King, Mike Johnson, Stevie Sullivan, Fredrik Modin - we had a bunch of fun guys, and we just kept winning. So it was almost like a jovial, "Look at us! Look at us!" And it never ended, it just kept going for four years.

AP: As someone who grew up around the (Greater Toronto Area) and watched the Leafs as a kid, what was the biggest lesson for you once you joined the team?

CJ: How big Leafs Nation really is. And that’s a great way to describe fans - Leafs Nation. It really is a nation. I mean, we go to Calgary and we score a goal, and there would be all Leafs jerseys. We go to Tampa Bay, it was a home game. The roof would pop off. It was crazy. We’d go to the East Coast, to the Maritimes - all Leafs fans. It was like Broadway and the New York Yankees. If you’re successful, there’s nothing better.

That’s why I’m a big fan of John Tavares making the decision he did. I’m so happy for him, and the fact he’s off to a great start. Because that’s the perfect scenario: a Toronto kid playing for the Leafs. You’re in your prime, you’re not going to struggle, and you come back and get a long-term deal. Oh my gosh, that’s a no-brainer. And I’m sorry, but the Islanders just aren’t on the brink of winning the Stanley Cup. And hopefully the Leafs are going to win a Stanley Cup and he’s going to be a big part of bringing a Cup back to Toronto. It’s just a perfect scenario.

AP: Growing up for me, being able to go to Maple Leaf Gardens - for Oasis and Radiohead concerts, for pro wrestling matches, for NHL games when I was lucky enough to get tickets - there always was a special aura about the building. What was it like to play there? Was it that the stands were almost on top of each other? Was a combination of things that made it unique?

CJ: It was a combination of things for sure. I never attended a Leafs game until I was 18 years old. And I tell Wendel Clark this story - the game I was at was the game where Wendel scored four goals on Daren Puppa - and I told him, "The next time I saw you score four goals was on me. Thanks, Wendel (laughs)."

But the Gardens was a special place, and yeah, part of it was the steepness (of the seats). I can’t believe nobody was killed in the greens (section) behind the nets. It was insanity. Someone would tip one up there in warmups and I’d look up and think, how does nobody die? You could never have that now.

As a goalie playing there, there was no other rink like it. Because the corners were like a pinball machine. They weren’t deep, and the boards weren’t square, they were oval, so anytime a team would dump the puck in, it’d pinball right to the slot for a one-timer. I’m like, "Wow, this is a tough place to play in." Then the new building came in with the deep corners, and I was like, "Wow, this is so much easier (laughs)."

AP: For the past 10-15 years, it feels like goalies and goalie equipment are a focal point for criticism on how to improve the game, or how to increase scoring. But with the removal of obstruction we’ve seen players be more able to show what they can do in terms of creating offense. Do you feel like, as a card-carrying member of the goalies union, netminders have been unfairly picked on?

CJ: No, I understand. Goalies looked like lacrosse goalies for a while there, and it looked out of whack compared to the history of the game. And I’m the same way - I wish the pad size was one standard pad size, which is smaller. Because I feel the best goalies would still be the best goalies, and they’d put some distance between themselves and some of the not-so-good goalies.

So I’d like to see a more athletic goalie; I think it’s just more entertaining, so I’d love to see the pad size come way down to, like, 33 inches, instead of the tall guys, who have 43 inches. And (those extra 10 inches are) really for stopping pucks. Because I used to do it, too. You’d see a more athletic goalie, a more challenging goalie. You’d see more goals. You’d see more athletic saves. Not quite back to Mike Palmateer-level excitement - and how exciting were those days - but honestly, they’d have to scramble and do more. The Carey Prices of the world, they’d still be the best, because they’re the best athletes. And I think you’d see a bigger difference between the best NHL goalie and the worst goalie. And nobody would ever complain about the equipment again. You’re not changing the net size, nothing like that.

And also - sorry, I’m on a bit of a soapbox here - but I see minor hockey goalies, and parents come up to me and they’ll say, "Hey, what do you think of my son? And I’ll say, "He’s an amazing goalie. I love him, and he’s great." But I also say, "Can you make him 6-foot-3?" Because otherwise, he has no chance. If he’s not over 6-foot-2, he will not make the NHL. And I hate saying that because you’ve made the game available to the Johnny Gaudreaus and everybody else. Kudos for that. That’s great. Now let’s make it available to at least a 6-foot goalie.

AP: With the way the game has changed since you retired, what stands out for you?

CJ: I love the speed and skill of the game, the skating, the passing, and no obstruction. Even the shootout. I was against it at first; I was more of a purist and (hated) putting more pressure on the goalies. Now if I’m watching it, I’ll flip through to see if there is a shootout. Because now you see moves you’ve never seen before because it’s about entertainment. So in the regular season, a shootout is a great way to win a game.

The only thing I’d change, is the goalie pads - cut them way down. Oh, and take the trapezoid out. Playing the puck is such a skill for goalies, and when I’m watching a minor-hockey goalie who can play the puck, he stands out to me. I’m impressed. I loved watching Marty Turco wheel around, and when I was in college playing against Robb Stauber as he was shooting the puck down at the other end at me. And goalies playing the puck would give it away once in a while, and you’d get entertainment.

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