About a month ago, Dave Scott, the Flyers’ governor, said he wanted general manager Chuck Fletcher to be aggressive at Monday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline.
“I don’t want to hold back,” he said at the time.
But stuff happened between then and now. Mostly bad stuff. Horrendous starts. Defensive lapses. Goaltenders unable to make critical saves. An offense that went flat.
Put it all together and the Flyers -- who are 8-12-3 since the start of March -- are four points behind Boston for the final playoff spot, and the Bruins have two games in hand.
Which is why the Flyers went from buyers to sellers at the deadline.
They made two minor trades Monday, including a deal that sent popular winger/center Michael Raffl to Washington for a fifth-round pick. The Flyers will play the Capitals on Tuesday in Washington.
The underrated Raffl, 32, a pending unrestricted free agent, spent eight years with the Flyers and played on all four lines. He had a 21-goal season in 2014-15. A skilled penalty killer, he was plagued by injuries this season and had three goals and eight points in in 34 games.
Trading Raffl -- who played 504 games with the Flyers, which is more than Paul Holmgren, Ross Lonsberry, Ron Hextall, Bernie Parent, Eric Lindros, Dave Poulin, Mike Richards, Mel Bridgman and many others -- means rookies Tanner Laczynski and Wade Allison could get more playing time.
The Flyers also dealt offensive-minded defenseman Erik Gustafsson to Montreal for a seventh-round pick (previously acquired from St. Louis) in 2022. The Flyers will retain half of his $3 million salary on a pro-rated basis.
Fletcher’s biggest move was signing versatile forward Scott Laughton, a pending unrestricted free agent who had drawn interest in the trade market, to a five-year extension that carries an annual $3 million cap hit.
Gustafsson signed as a free agent in the offseason, and he had the unfair implication that he was replacing the retired Matt Niskanen, one of the Flyers’ best all-around defensemen.
Gustafsson, 29, had numerous defensive shortcomings and was a frequent healthy scratch this season. He had a goal, 10 points, and a minus-2 rating in 24 games.
With the trade deadline gone, Fletcher needs to have a successful and busy offseason if the Flyers are going to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. He failed to get a suitable defensive replacement for Niskanen after last season, and that will be his No. 1 mission in the upcoming months.
By signing Laughton, the Flyers locked up a hard-nosed player who does a lot of little things at both ends of the ice. Laughton, who turns 27 next month, has seven goals, 17 points and a plus-7 rating in 38 games this season.
Laughton, the Flyers’ first-round selection (No. 20 overall) in 2012, signed a five-year deal with an annual $3 million cap hit. He is earning $2.3 million this season. The Flyers will have to protect him if they don’t want to expose him to Seattle in the expansion draft.
Fletcher will address the media later this afternoon.
In other moves, the Buffalo Sabres, who scored three late goals to jolt the Flyers on Sunday, 5-3, completed a trade Monday morning when they dealt forwards Taylor Hall and Curtis Lazar to Boston — the team Philly is chasing in the playoff race — for a second-round pick this year and forward Anders Bjork.
Hall has fallen greatly. The one-time NHL MVP has just two goals (one fewer than Raffl) in 37 games.
Former Flyer Jeff Carter, 36, was dealt from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh on Monday for conditional draft picks in 2022 (third-rounder) and 2023 (fourth-rounder). Carter has eight goals and 19 points in 40 games. The third-round selection will become a second-rounder if the Penguins reach the Stanley Cup Final and Carter plays in at least 50% of the games.
Penguins GM Ron Hextall was the assistant general manager in Los Angeles during some of Carter’s years with the Kings. They won a Stanley Cup together in 2012.
In six seasons with the Flyers, Carter had 181 goals, including 46 in 2008-09.
“We believe this group is capable of making noise, especially with adding Jeff,” Brian Burke, the Penguins’ president of hockey operations, told the NHL Network.
Defenseman Braydon Coburn, another former Flyer, was acquired by the New York Islanders, who sent a seventh-round selection in 2022 to Ottawa. Coburn, 36, has played in just 16 games this season and has two assists.
Among other trades: New Jersey traded defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to Edmonton for a conditional fourth-rounder in 2022; Chicago acquired forward Adam Gaudette from Vancouver for forward Matthew Highmore. The Blackhawks also sent center Mattias Janmark and a 2022 fifth-rounder to Vegas for a second-round pick this year and a third-rounder in 2022.
Ottawa claimed defenseman Victor Mete off waivers from Montreal, and Dallas snared defenseman Sami Vatanen off waivers from New Jersey.
