from Sam Carchidi of Philly Hockey Now,

The Philadelphia Flyers’ management had said the plan was to make an “aggressive retool” this summer.

Could have fooled us.

The Flyers failed to sign star left winger Johnny Gaudreau — who wanted to come home and play for the Orange and Black — when the free-agency period opened Wednesday at noon.

Instead, they settled on steady defenseman Justin Braun, 35, and tough-guy Nic Deslauriers, a left winger who has 521 penalty minutes and 44 goals in 506 career games. Deslauriers, 31, was given a four-year contract with an annual cap hit of $1.75 million. Braun got one year at $1.75 million.

Aggressive retool? The Flyers appear to be building a team that will contend for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft, Connor Bedard, a center who is a projected generational player.

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