In his prime, he was #2 LHD behind Lindholm who did all of the heavy lifting defensively. He was the puck mover. As the main veteran these past 2.5 years he's been tasked with Lindholm's old job and he clearly can't handle it. Like Broberg, he has help in STL. And Montgomery is a better HC than Cronin is.
I mean, in 2022 when Ana sent Lindholm, Manson and Rackell out, Fowler could have asked PV to send him out as well in the off-season or something. But, he stayed there another 2.5 years untiil now. So, something changed that finally got Fowler out of Ana at 38% retention. And he still landed with a non PO team.