UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- The Penguins have named Chris Pryor director of player personnel.
Pryor, who spent the past two seasons as an amateur scout with Nashville, is a longtime associate of general manager Ron Hextall.
"He's a top evaluator of talent," Hextall said. "A very, very proven track record over many, many years."
Pryor, 60, will replace Derek Clancey, who has been fired after 14 seasons with the Penguins.
Hextall said "I don't suspect we'll be making any (additional) changes," pending the outcome of a review of the staff that he will conduct with Pryor and assistant GM Patrik Allvin.
Pryor will oversee scouting operations in North America and Europe and be involved in all player personnel decisions.
He spent 20 years in various roles with Philadelphia, and teamed with Hextall to assemble much of the Flyers' current roster, so his hiring had been anticipated for a while.
"He was No. 1 priority, for sure," Hextall said. "Chris was extremely valuable to the (Flyers) at that point."
Longtime NHL center Dave Poulin told Tom Reed of DK Pittsburgh Sports recently that he would not be surprised to see Hextall and Pryor reunited.
"In this business, you learn to trust certain individuals," he said. "And when you see moves that are made staff-wise, you begin to look for where the connection is. They had a pretty good build together and pretty good run together.
"It’s those late-night conversations — just pick a player, maybe a Travis Konecny or a Travis Sanheim — where other people might have doubted them. They moved up to get Konecny, so he’s a good example. When you have all those reference points with a person, it’s hard not to think they are not going to get back together again. They have had a lot of success together."
Hextall was heavily involved in successful rebuilding programs in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, and replenishing the Penguins' pool of prospects will be a priority for Hextall and Pryor, although not their sole focus.
"We also want to maintain the best possible team for today," Hextall said. "We'll kind of walk that fine line and make decisions as we go along here. There are going to be some tough ones, for sure."
Hextall's roots as a player stretch back to the Broad Street Bullies days in Philadelphia, and while the teams he has helped to construct have been more noteworthy for their talent than their toughness, he acknowledged that he'd like to find a player like Washington winger Tom Wilson, whose game blends the two. And who isn't shy about straying outside the rules.
"I think every team would like to have that type of player," Hextall said. "There's not a whole lot of them, and you've got a (small) roster size, so it's tough. But if we could find someone to certainly play that role and give us a more physical element, we'd certainly look at it."