Quoting: MelonVK
I think Hextall was doing a very good job accumulating assets for the Flyers to eventually make a run for it. Fletcher seems desperate, and the Gudas trade is just straight up bad. Gudas made money below his pay grade and Niskanen currently makes well above his. Braun isn't that good anymore, but I guess he's fine. For me paying Hayes 7m is the least bad out of those 3 moves while downgrading from Gudas is clearly the worst. The Flyers were steadily getting better, and starting this season with a proper goaltender and maybe signing one solid UFA would have been enough for me to believe they were a playoff team. Downgrading on defense while signing that UFA makes me wonder.
Hextall was just that, he was unreal at stockpiling assets, but instead of tearing it down in a rebuild, he tried to have the team contend. He never gave our core a supporting cast, and he was reluctant to pull the trigger on trades- EXAMPLE- Ryan O'Rielly- Look how that went for the blues, and did not address holes coming in to his final season as a GM, and his reluctance to fire Hakstol when something needed to change, it was not working, they were stuck in limbo-- Also known as Mediocrity
Niskanen is better than Gudas, Nisky was getting off a long playoff run, he has a down year, is it possible that Parakyo or Peitro have a down year after logging big times minutes and playing in the SCF, most likely, Nisky is due for a bounce back year and he will.
Braun is extremely underrated, he is defensive d-man who can skate well, If paired with a player like Ghost, he will help ghost greatly.
Chuck has done a good job, he has given up none of our prospects, kept Ghost, and we still have #11OA and its June 19.