Flyers' Ron Hextall: 'The Jake Voraceks of the world are few and far between'

Philadelphia Flyers general manager Ron Hextall made sure to lock up one of his most valuable assets Thursday.

Hextall inked star forward Jakub Voracek to a hefty eight-year, $66-million contract extension, retaining the 25-year-old hot commodity.

"Once the season ends you start looking at your priorities. Clearly it was our No. 1 priority," Hextall told Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post. "The Jake Voraceks of the world are few and far between. He’s certainly not a player that we were willing to take the risk of losing."

Voracek's contract exceeds that of St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko and Buffalo Sabres forward Ryan O'Reilly, making it the most lucrative of the offseason, but Hextall admits the team was expecting that would be the case.

"We didn’t expect to get Jake at a low number," said Hextall. "We knew this was coming. The development part of our organization, we have a huge emphasis on that right now and that's not gonna stop."

Voracek finished tied for fourth in scoring during the regular season with 81 points in 82 games, just six points behind Dallas Stars forward Jamie Benn in the Art Ross Trophy race.