The newest Columbus Blue Jacket, Johnny Gaudreau, was a guest on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast today. During the podcast, Gaudreau talked about leaving Calgary, how being a free agent for the first time went, and how he was close to joining the New Jersey Devils before Columbus called him.
Gaudreau wanted join the Flyers when he decided to test the free agency market. He is a Salem, NJ native and mentioned before that he would like to play in Philadelphia before his career is over.
The Flyers were brought up during the podcast because Gaudreau grew up as a Flyers fan. Gaudreau mentioned that he knew of the salary cap problems that the Flyers had and that they might not be around when free agency started.
Paul Bissonnette then chimed in and said to Gaudreau, “they gave your bag to Risto.”, joking about Rasmus Ristolainen’s 5-year $25.5 million extension. Everybody laughed then Bissonnette proceeded to throw shade at Chuck Fletcher for not moving contracts to go after Gaudreau.
“Chuck Fletcher is now my favorite GM for the answer he gave for how it would be hard to move a couple of contracts,” said Bissonnette.
Fans are not happy with Fletcher
The decision to not go after Gaudreau has left a sour taste in the mouths of Flyers fans. Fans thought that the “aggressive retool” meant that a superstar player would be acquired. Instead, Fletcher signed Justin Braun and Nicolas Deslauriers.
Fans were also disgruntled about the Tony DeAngelo signing because that money could have gone to Gaudreau. The same can be said about the Ristolainen extension. The “aggressive retool” appears to be anything but.
(Photo by Derek Cain/Icon Sportswire)
