During his rookie season in 1986–87, he was awarded the Vezina Trophy as the league's top goaltender and led the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Finals.

[note 1] Injuries in the middle of his career contributed to a drop in his playing ability; as a result, he was traded on three occasions in the off-seasons between 1992 and 1994 to the Nordiques, the Islanders and then back to the Flyers.

Upon his return to Philadelphia, Hextall regained confidence and form, recording goals against averages (GAA) below 3.00 in each of his five subsequent seasons – the lowest of his career.

[5] During his youth, Hextall saw his father and uncle often roughed up by the Philadelphia Flyers, whose aggressive style of play for much of the 1970s gave the team the name "Broad Street Bullies".

Hextall's mother thought her son's love for hockey exceeded that of her husband's teammates and believed it would drive him to achieve his aim of goaltending in the NHL.

[7] In one game that season, against the Prince Albert Raiders, Hextall faced 105 shots, and made 84 saves, a performance described as brilliant by the Regina Leader-Post.

During the season, he moved to the Flyers' other farm team; Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League (AHL), where he played 11 times, with four wins, and a GAA of 3.68.

The Bears finished the regular season as league leaders, and won the John D. Chick Trophy as the South Division Champions.

[14] Hextall lived up to his aggressive reputation in the Conference final, played against the St. Catharines Saints, fighting three different members of the opposition side during a single bench-clearing brawl.

[17] Looking back on his time in the AHL, Hextall reflected that despite his initial disappointment at not being selected to play for the Flyers straight away, "the two years that I spent in the American League got me to the point where I was sure I could be a No.

Hextall continued to display the aggressive nature with which he had always played, swinging his stick at Brad Smith and Troy Murray early in his first NHL season.

Having lost to the Devils, the Flyers wanted revenge for Steve Richmond's punch on Kjell Samuelsson at the end of the game; Hextall targeted Chevrier in a fight labelled by Chico Resch as "like a heavyweight against a lightweight.

Robin Finn, writing in The New York Times, said that the team won the title "without their trademark, those endless waves of madcap scoring", primarily due to the "heroics of Hextall".

The puck was dumped into the Philadelphia zone by the Bruins, and Hextall picked it up without any players near him; his shot fired into the air, bounced and rolled into the net.

[46] Against the Penguins in the Patrick Division Final, Hextall's performances were mixed: he under-performed early in the series, and in game five was swapped out of the net and then reinstated twice during a 10–7 defeat for the Flyers.

"[47] The Flyers won the next game to force a decider, but Hextall was ruled out of the contest with a first degree sprain of the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee.

The Flyers refused to deal with the agent, and at a tearful press conference, Hextall declared his contract invalid and announced that he would not take part in the team's training camp.

[57] The Flyers' orthopaedist, Dr. Arthur Bartolozzi, suggested a possible reason for his series of injuries: He is in motion anticipating the shot before the guy even hits the puck.

[62] On July 30, the arbitrator ruled in favour of the Philadelphia Flyers, and Hextall was traded to Quebec, along with five other players, two first round selections (in 1993 and 1994), and $15,000,000 cash for Lindros.

"[63] Hextall regained some of the confidence he displayed during his first years in Philadelphia,[64] and although a strained thigh muscle kept him out towards the end of the regular season,[65] he helped the Nordiques to reach the playoffs for the first time since 1987.

[74] The break, and challenge, that Hextall was afforded by McLennan's call-up helped him to recover his form, and in February, he made consecutive shutouts against the Ottawa Senators and Washington Capitals.

He described the move as being two-pronged: it would appease the fans and prevent the derisory calls when the team were struggling, and it would give McLennan a chance to establish himself as the number-one goaltender.

[7] In the playoffs, Hextall played in all twelve of the Flyers' games, a 4–2 first round victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning followed by a 4–2 defeat to the Florida Panthers.

[7] Hextall brought a new style of goaltending to the NHL, providing support to his two defencemen due to his willingness to come out of the net and play the puck.

Not everyone agreed; NHL goaltender Darren Pang described feeling as if "he had just witnessed Superman flying out of a phone booth" when he saw Hextall's puckhandling ability in a minor league game.

He theorized that because Hextall's style of play frequently took him out of his goal crease, the threat of physical violence lessened the chances of him being challenged by an attacker when out of position.

"[97] Rogie Vachon, who served as the general manager of the Los Angeles Kings during the early part of the Hextall's playing career, praised his goaltending ability, but felt that his aggressive conduct "shouldn't be in hockey and I think it tarnishes his image, too.

[98] Former NHL goaltender John Davidson commented that Hextall "thrived" on being a villain; he further described him as a "great character", and noted that "when he came to town, fans would want to race to the arena to boo him.

He was promoted to director of professional player personnel three years later and was considered by the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame to be a key factor in the success experienced by the Flyers during the early 2000s when they won the Atlantic Division three times while reaching the Eastern Conference Finals on two occasions.

Granlund was considered a declining player with an undesirable contract, and would subsequently score only one goal in twenty games with the Penguins, dubbed "a complete non-factor.