It's been a little more than eight years since Jake Voracek became a Flyer. He's played for three coaches and two general managers since coming over from the Columbus Blue Jackets and the team has alternated being in playoff contention or not.

This season marks the fifth under Ron Hextall's tenure as general manager and his big-picture plan of a rebuild on the fly is starting to take shape. Voracek has been along for the whole ride and explains why he's pleased with the team's direction in a Q&A with reporter Dave Isaac.

DI: You’ve been around here since 2011. You’re one of the veteran guys that went through this rebuild and you’re starting to see the fruits of its labor. What has the big picture been like for you?

JV: Well I wouldn’t call it a rebuild. When you look at other teams, they had a different rebuild than us.

DI: Their rock bottom was certainly lower.

JV: Yeah. We knew what approach Hexy was taking. It was basically the next, uh, almost a decade to get there and right now it’s time for us to make the next step because we’ve got everything going our way and there’s no excuse anymore. I don’t think there was an excuse before but obviously Hexy had a plan in his head and he followed it. Right now our team is good enough to make a run. We know we have a lot of young guys, but those young guys have played a lot of games. Last year’s playoff experience was huge for us as well.

We have to. Guys know there’s not an option.

DI: Was it difficult the first couple years of it, though? Back in ’14-15, you saw there was going to be a step backward before you took two forward.

JV: For us, it wasn’t like that. We had a chance to make the playoffs every year and if we didn’t, it was only our fault. Obviously we probably weren’t good enough— well, we weren’t good enough because we didn’t win it — we weren’t good enough to make a run at the Stanley Cup. When you get to the playoffs, anything can happen.

We played Washington, we played Pittsburgh the last two out of three (seasons in the playoffs). We had a good run. Obviously I expected a better outcome, but I don’t think our mindset was that it was going to be a difficult year because we were going into half a rebuild. It’s not good enough for me, (Claude Giroux), (Wayne Simmonds). You know what I mean? We want to win no matter what.

DI: Right. That’s what I’m asking because some guys wouldn’t take it the right way. You guys seemed to.

JV: We didn’t think about it that way and I don’t think we approached it that way.

DI: I think some people wondered: Are the best years of you, Wayne and Claude being wasted while the team picks up a head of steam and isn’t quite a big contender yet.

JV: They said it about G that he was past his prime two years ago and he had 102 points last year. They said I’m never gonna repeat the season I had three years ago (81 points) and I had an 85-point season. They said Coots was never gonna break 15 goals or over 40 points. All of a sudden he’s got 76. There ya go.

I think obviously getting older your body is getting older, but it’s all about that player and how he approaches that season and conditioning-wise how he comes into that camp and how much he wants it. He can be 35, 36 and be on top of their peak because they want it so much. Obviously we want that success and that’s the way we approach it. We don’t think about that five years ago it could have happen then, or happened then. We are here right now. I’m 29, I think it’s the best hockey age. G’s 30. Simmer’s 30. They have a lot of experience, plus we’re not that old. I would say that prime is starting right now.

DI: You would probably give me the same answer any year in camp and I’m sure it’s tough to get pumped up for preseason games but is this the most excited for a regular season you’ve been considering what you have and the young guys and you see what Nolan Patrick did the second half of last year?

JV: Yeah of course. You see those guys develop into the players they could be eventually and every time they take a step forward it’s fun to watch and fun to see. With the preseason, you have to play them. It’s hard to really jump into the regular season without any games. I don’t mind playing in them because it gets you into the game shape. You come into camp working hard in the summer and offseason off the ice, but you’ve still got to get that conditioning on the ice and during the practices and during the games. It’s important to me to focus on that as well and I’ve always liked it.

It prepares me for the season and hopefully we have another good start like last year.

DI: You’ve played one game with Carter Hart so I guess I’m asking more off of practice — what are your impressions of him? I think people see him as the last piece of the puzzle to this rebuild…or half rebuild if you want to call it that.

JV: Yeah, of course. He’s played well. He’s played well. I watched a little bit of the Rangers game on TV as well. He’s solid. But like I said, (Michal Neuvirth) is healthy [Editor's note: Neuvirth got hurt in Friday's practice and was not expected to play against the New York Islanders] and (Brian Elliott) is close as well. We’ve kind of got that right mix. I don’t know what they’re gonna do with Carter. It’s obviously up to management. But if Carter’s gonna be playing in the AHL, we’re fine with Neuvy and Moose.

Dave Isaac; @davegisaac; 856-486-2479; disaac@gannett.com