Here's what Flyers general manager Ron Hextall had to say to reporters during his conference call on Thursday afternoon:
Transcript courtesy of the Flyers:
Flyers GM Ron Hextall: On Braydon Coburn I think tomorrow’s unlikely. We’re probably looking more at Sunday or Tuesday. We’ll see where it goes. On Kimmo Timonen hoping to join the team Tuesday He skated and felt really good, so assuming he goes on the path he’s going right now, the plan is for him to join the team on Tuesday for the morning skate there. Rather than a full practice, the morning skate I think is the first step. So that’s the plan as of right now. On Steve Mason Mase had arthroscopic surgery on his knee. He’s out two to three weeks. He’s been here for rehab. There’s not much of an update other than to say the timeline is the same. On Rob Zepp being back to action with the Phantoms We’re going to go day to day here. I think we’ll all feel more comfortable if he plays a game. He’ll be with the Phantoms at least on Friday and we’ll go from there. How much of the next couple weeks determines if you’re a seller at the deadline? Nothing has really changed. If the right deal comes along for now and for the future, we’ll make it. If it doesn’t, obviously we won’t. We’ll do everything we can to get into the playoffs short of selling off younger assets. We have our vision for the future, so we’re not going to do anything short term that’s going to hurt us long term. Do you have to be a certain number of points within a playoff spot to determine that? Not necessarily. That’s going to be part of the equation. The other part is going to be what type of price people will pay. There’s a lot that goes into the decision making. As we close in here… it’s probably a little bit early now, but as we close in here we’ll gauge where we’re at and the prices and we’ll make decisions. Was there any talk about shutting down Mason? No, none whatsoever. I guess I would ask the question why would we do that? On injuries around the same area and whether they were related No. This was an acute injury which means it happened when it happened…. [There was no] previous injury, it was an injury that happened at that time. They can tell that when they go into the knee. It was pretty obvious. It’s not a big deal what he’s going through… it’s pretty routine. Is 2-3 weeks him coming back to practice, or play in a game? The direction we’re being given is two to three weeks he’ll hopefully be ready to play. Two is probably a little bit of a stretch there. He’s got to get on the ice, he’s got to get comfortable and then he’s got to get a few practices in. There’s a chance he could be on the ice before then. Since Kimmo will practice next week, is Feb. 21 a realistic goal for him to return? I’ve seen kind of all these things thrown in. I personally think it’s too early, but it’s going to be we’ll see how Kimmo feels. I guess for me, from where I’m looking right now, I would probably suggest that’s not good for Kimmo or for us, at least at this point. I think there’s a few steps you have to go through – OK, you skated by yourself, now today he’s skated by himself and he’s doing more, [then] he gets with the team. But I’d question whether he’s had enough practice by then to get back into a game given the length of his layoff. So I don’t believe it will be that early. Does the trade deadline factor in at all on Kimmo’s timeline? No. We’re not going to put Kimmo at risk or move his time schedule up so teams can see him. This is about what’s best for Kimmo. We’re not going to rush him for reasons that aren’t prudent. Does the right deal in your eyes include draft picks or players not in the NHL right now? Well I’ve told you guys I’m not going to discuss the particulars of trades, and I’m not going to come off that. We have a vision for the future, but I’m not going to get into particulars. On Nick Schultz and whether his deal has to be done before the trade deadline I’m not sure. We’ve had dialogue, but we’ll keep that internal. I don’t have an answer for you.
On Michael Raffl I actually talked to Chief… he can play. Whether he’s ready to play or not physically is a question right now. We don’t feel like he’s ready to play. I don’t believe he’s going to play tomorrow, and then we’ll see for Sunday. It’s more for Raff about getting his wind back and opening his lungs up and being able to handle the load that he needs to handle before we put him in there. On Shayne Gostisbehere He skated with the Phantoms a couple days now, no contact. He’s moving along in the process and we expect him probably end of February, probably more early March, that he should be playing assuming things move along here. A little bit behind the timeline that was originally set out for us, more of a strength issue, the surrounding muscles that need to be built up. Do you consider this a lost year for him? I think every player you say ‘we’ll see what he looks like in training camp’ and obviously our job is to project, but I don’t look at it as a lost year. First of all, he had training camp, he had preseason, he had some games at the start, and when he was watching a lot of the Flyers games there he was sitting with Kjell Samuelsson and they were talking and watching players that are similar to Shayne, so you still can gather some information, educate yourself, and hopefully in some small way move the process along. He’s going to get some games here obviously at the end once he starts playing, and we’ll see how he does at the end of the year, and then he’s got to have a big summer, and come to camp and prove to us he’s ready for that level. Did hit help his process? Probably not. But I wouldn’t say that he doesn’t have a chance at playing in the NHL next year because of this year. But obviously it didn’t help him. Were the Flyers interested in Evander Kane? I don’t want to comment on any team’s players. It’s not necessarily within the rules and certainly not ethical either, so I’m going to stay away from that. Did Steve Mason’s procedure nip both his knee injuries in the bud and will keep him from having any further issues? You don’t know if a guy is going to have any issues. Players get hurt, some more than other, some less. The exact [inaudible] was injured at that time, and there was no other injury previous that was detected in the scope, so that’s all we have to go on is that Steve got injured in the Washington game, or timeout, and that’s it. It’s a single injury, and hopefully he can stay healthy [inaudible]. Are you coming tomorrow [to Columbus]? I’m planning on it right now, probably 75-25, we have the pro scouts in here and they’re here through tomorrow. Right now I plan to come in, but we’ll see tomorrow.