Fans can see this or that player being tradeable for such and such return. It’s all dependent on another team wanting said player on their contact and being willing to give up that return. It isn’t all that easy to do especially now with so many teams up against the cap.
Yes and no. For decades, literally, all of the hypothetical moves Flyers fans suggested the team make were always viewed as
"impossible" for one reason or another, until they happened elsewhere.
Example: If fans had suggested Briere trade Frost or Laughton to Colorado for Byram they would have been laughed at, ridiculed, and told,
"There's no way the Flyers are getting Byram for those guys" until 20 days later when the Sabres got Byram for Mittelstadt.
Matt Savoie gets traded for a 4th line C and another piece last week... where was Briere? I guess there was no way he could offer equal, or slightly better, value than that package. It's happened time and time again for years. And every time it's the local mouthpieces that pop out of the woodwork for damage control explaining why it was 100% impossible for the Flyers to make the same trade.
The truth is it's the Flyers who are responsible for lacking the vision, creativity, or ability to finesse and facilitate a deal... or even think 1 or 2 steps ahead. A case in point was the draft when Buium slips to 12. Even if you feel he's redundant, wasn't anyone in the organization sharp enough to convince Briere to draft him as a scratch-off ticket due to his immense upside? If the organization feels he's redundant, they must imagine the could flip him as a golden asset in a year or two for a top asset the way the Ducks did with Drysdale... and that's if he doesn't blow their doors off and end up being their next 1D.
This organization has always operated with basic, flawed, tunnel vision and therefore falls into the same traps, and steps on the same mines, religiously. What other team would/have signed one of their homegrown vets to an enormous contract with terrible term, named them captain, then healthy scratched them shortly after?
The Hayes contract, the JVR contract, and the Couturier contract. The timing was grotesque on all of them. Next will be the pending horrific Konecny extension.
"But, but, but, we need good players to compete... blah, blah, blah." Tell that to the Avalanche who started to emerge as a powerhouse once they traded Matt Duchene and failed to pass up on an elite defenseman in the draft
(Cale Makar). They knew in order to be a legit contender for years, they needed to move Duchene to rebuild properly and dedicate their
"top dollars" to players better than him at the right time... even though he was currently one of their best players and a fan-favorite. They at least had a plan and were thinking multiple steps ahead. No matter the regime, the Flyers lack the vision that winning teams have. Which is exactly why they won't trade their
"Duchene" and they just passed on their
"Makar." 
