It's no secret that the Philadelphia Flyers' penalty kill could use a bit of a boost.

After finishing with a 75.8 percent kill rate last season - third-worst in the NHL - the Flyers are seeking a new face to add to their scheme when down a man.

"I'm open to it, but it would probably be more of a lateral move on the market rather than a free agent," Flyers general manager Ron Hextall told Dave Isaac of the Cherry Hill Courier-Post. "It would be a forward. We'd like to add a penalty-killing forward but to this point there's been nothing there that's made enough sense for us to move."

Philadelphia did improve on the penalty kill in the late stages of last season - 78.6 percent after Feb. 1, good for 19th in the NHL.

"If we have the same personnel, we have to be the entire year like we were the last 25 games. We can't be at the bottom of the league," Hextall said. "We saw signs at the end of the year, which is why I feel some comfort right now.

"Do I feel total comfort? No, I don't. We finished bottom three in the league and that's not good enough. Again, the players that we have, have to be better."

Head coach Dave Hakstol is entering his fourth season with the Flyers. During his tenure, the team has made fewer trips to the penalty box each season, only to watch its performance on the penalty kill also decline:

Season Times Shorthanded (Rank) PK% (Rank) 2015-16 262 (12th) 80.5 (20th) 2016-17 247 (15th) 79.8 (21st) 2017-18 223 (29th) 75.8 (29th)

With those numbers, it's understandable for Hextall to be open to tweaking his lineup.

Still, it wasn't an offseason of fireworks in Philadelphia, as the team recruited James van Riemsdyk and defenseman Christian Folin, but neither acquisition is a penalty-kill specialist. Van Riemsdyk saw less than two minutes total on the penalty kill over 81 games with Toronto, while Folin's 1:05 average ice time while shorthanded ranked fifth among Los Angeles blue-liners.