Carolina has a well thought out strategy, including letting veterans walk rather than overpay.
Scott was setting policy for the Flyers with Barber whispering in his ear, "aggressive reload."
I think Fletcher knew it was a lost cause by last spring, but placating his boss bought him one more season.
His moves reeked of a GM willing to draw to an inside straight b/c he was screwed in any case - had he traded Risto, Sanheim he would be declaring that they were starting a full scale rebuild, but that probably would have got him fired. It took the team imploding to finally convince the PTB that a rebuild was in order.