(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)
By Jesse Larch, Sports Talk Philly Staff 
Usually when a team fails to make the playoffs, questions surface surrounding those that make the decisions for the team, but Ron Hextall deserves the benefit of the doubt.
When Hextall came to the Flyers, he stated that he would take the long road to bring the Flyers back to greatness, and this season that road got a lot a shorter.
He emphasized developing players and not relying on free agency or trading young assets to contend for the Stanley Cup. Now, that plan appears to be on the cusp of culminating over the next season or two.
As The Who famously sang, "The kids are alright."
Mike Vecchione and Sam Morin both made their NHL debuts on Tuesday night in New Jersey, and showed promise. Morin produced a game-high seven hits to go along with a number of very impressive defensive plays while looking like he belonged next to Shayne Gostisbehere.
Vecchione won 71% of his faceoffs and almost scored a goal, but the puck just eluded the heel of his stick after ringing off of the post.
Gostisbehere has also been red-hot of late after struggling for most of the season, scoring seven points in the last six games to show signs that the player who rose to stardom last season is still here.
Morin and Gostisbehere are fine examples of Hextall's patience with his prospects.
Morin has spent two years in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and almost two full years with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms before finally receiving his first call-up this past Tuesday. Usually an 11th overall pick will be in the NHL before the fourth year of his draft, but Hextall has proven that he is in no rush.
It was the same with Gostisbehere, when he won the Frozen Four as a member of Union College with Vecchione as a teammate. Ghost was the first of the Flyers long-awaited defensive prospects to emerge, and fans were salivating at the opportunity to see him in the orange and black, but again Hextall waited.
Hextall did not want to give Ghost the full time call-up, opting to season him in the AHL but injuries forced his hand and Ghost was recalled out of necessity. Fortunately, Ghost went on to have a historic rookie season.
Hextall outlined his patient approach in his first press conference as the team's general manager:
"If a player doesn't come into training camp and really show you something, he probably needs more time. Tell me one young player in the history of hockey that's been hurt by spending some time in the minors. I can tell you there are hundreds and hundreds that have been hurt by coming into the NHL too soon."
Hextall has also had his prospects that did not need a lot of time after their draft, like 2016 rookies Travis Konecny and Ivan Provorov.
Konecny appears to be a long term answer on the wing as his game and body continues to mature. Konecny has scored 11 goals and 17 assists in 68 games, and he is one of the only Flyers that does not have a minus rating this season.
Provorov appears to already be on track to becoming a No. 1 defenseman, and figures to be one for a long time. At 20 years old, he has already settled into the role, and shows no signs of slowing down.
He was an excellent scorer in junior, and that is the only part of his game to not fully come into form at the NHL level. Provorov scored 134 points in 122 games while playing for Brandon of the Western Hockey League. Provorov has 28 points in 79 games for the Flyers this season.
Defensively, he is already making plays that only a handful of players in the league can make.
Another player who has begun to blossom at the NHL level is Jordan Weal. Weal was not a Flyers draft pick, but he does have ties to Hextall when he was a Kings prospect when Hextall was the assistant general manager for Los Angeles.
Hextall brought Weal in via trade primarily to add depth to the Phantoms.
Weal was drafted by the Kings in 2010 and spent the early parts of his professional career producing impressive point totals in the AHL, but never quite being able to make the jump to the NHL. In Weal's second season as a member of the Flyers' organization, he finally got his first extended run in the NHL.
Weal has impressed, with eight goals and 11 points in 21 games for the Flyers. Weal has really settled in with six points in his last five games and has forced the Flyers to make a decision regarding his status in the upcoming expansion draft.
Even the Flyers seemingly never-ending issues at goaltender appear to be nearing an end with promising play from Anthony Stolarz in his time in the NHL this season. Stolarz, 23, has participated in two shutouts and posted a 1.93 goals against average and a .932 save percentage in six games and three starts for the Flyers this season.
It has been a very good year for the Flyers' prospects that have not seen NHL action as well. The Flyers own a host of impressive prospects across multiple leagues.
Three of the most impressive prospects have been defenseman Philippe Myers, forward Oskar Lindblom, and goaltender Carter Hart.
Hart has dominated the Western Hockey League this season. The defending Canadian Hockey League goaltender of the year has six shutouts in 63 games with a 2.14 goals against average and a .918 save percentage.
Myers is a big-bodied defender with an ability to make the opposition pay on both ends of the ice. Myers has 35 points in 34 games for the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL after posting 45 points in 63 games the previous season. Myers was awarded with an entry-level contract earlier this season.
Oskar Lindblom, a fifth round pick in 2014, has emerged as a top prospect for the Flyers this season. Lindblom is a winger with good size. He made his first North American appearance last season with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and scored seven points in eight games.
It appears that the stint in the NHL has helped Lindblom, as he has returned to the Swedish Elite League to score 47 points in 52 games, playing against professionals.
In addition to those three, there have been plenty of other prospects making great strides this season, like Tanner Laczynski, Merrick Madsen, Connor Bunnaman, Wade Allison, Travis Sanheim, and Robert Hagg.
Hagg and Sanheim are both likely to appear in the NHL next season after impressing with the Phantoms throughout the season.
Laczynski and Allison have both played very well in their first seasons in college, while Madsen has backstopped the Harvard Crimson to their first Frozen Four appearance.
Bunnaman scored 37 goals in 64 games for the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL a year after being taken in the fourth round by the Flyers.
With the overall success of prospects across the board, all signs point to Ron Hextall's patience paying off, and the Flyers returning to the league's mountain top in a short amount of time.
