Johnny Gaudreau went to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Huh?

So we’ve got a South Jersey guy linked to the Flyers, Devils, and Islanders after turning down a big-money offer from Cal-gary <Barry Melrose pronunciation>. Instead he goes to Columbus for 7 years at about $9.75 million AAV. The fact that the Flyers couldn’t make that happen is pretty sad. Chuck Fletcher, who had no problem slinging picks for Tony DeAngelo and Rasmus Ristolainen, could not, we presume, attach a first to JVR’s contract to get a local superstar back here and under the cap.

He was asked a series of questions about this Wednesday, I believe from Charlie O’Connor, which went like this:

To be clear, are you now finished with a big free agency moves you envision?

Yes, we’re done.

Johnny Gaudreau, he’s still out there, you guys are out on him?

We’re out on all the remaining free agents with the reality of our cap situation right now. It probably precluded us from looking at some of the more expensive options in the option in the market today. Today, to us, was more about depth signings, getting guys to make us a little bit harder to play against and making sure we have some players on two-way contracts that, again, can move between Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia.

Were you ever in on Gaudreau or was that not in ever?

No, we weren’t in. We were in on the players that we signed.

There was reports that you guys tried to clear a cap space and weren’t willing to give up a first-round pick, in particular to move James van Riemsdyk? Is that something you’d be willing to comment on?

I talked to a lot of teams over the last little while about maybe ways to get cap flexibility. I don’t know that it’s fair to comment on specific players. We looked at some different options, but the price of moving contracts is really expensive. In some cases, even more expensive than what you just indicated to me. At this point in time, for us, we like our depth up front. There’s no question. As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, ideally, we’d like to get some more high-end skill, and I think, starting in the draft with Cutter Gauthier, hopefully is a young man that can fill some holes for this organization down the road. I think first-round picks are going to be a pretty important part of what we’re trying to do as well.

Unless we get some more reporting on the subject, we can only guess about the JVR thing. There was one nugget out there about Fletcher not wanting to attach a first to move JVR, and I get it. Assets are important, but on the other hand, I mentioned the DeAngelo and Risto moves as being counter to what ended up happening here. If you’re gonna aggressively retool, then go all the way and ship out more picks for Johnny Hockey.

It’s like Freddie Mercury once sang. Don’t stop me now.