Early on, 2022 NHL Trade Deadline marked by big mistakes

Mistakes — boneheaded or not — are woven into the fabric of any NHL trade deadline, and while it’s early, the 2022 version already features a classic overpay. With days remaining before the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline expires, big trades can still drop, and we may be in for tide-turning surprises.

Yet, so far, it’s striking that some of the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline’s biggest mistakes involved not buying or selling at all.

In the end, these mistakes might hurt more than wasting a first-round pick on a crummy rental.

Instead of embracing the obvious need to rebuild, the Flyers decided to “aggressively re-tool.”

If that shaky plan wasn’t bad enough, the Flyers are banking on Chuck Fletcher showing that he’s learned from his mistakes as an NHL GM. Not promising. (When you’re a GM for as long as he’s been and have rarely enjoyed much success … yes, you have plenty of mistakes to choose from.)

Handing Rasmus Ristolainen a comically bad contract extension burns through just about any remaining benefit of the doubt. It’s difficult to shake uncomfortable comparisons between Ristolainen and Tyler Myers, another big former Sabres defenseman who inspires foolish investment after foolish investment.

The Tyler Myers – Rasmus Ristolainen parallels are well pic.twitter.com/1bmJfsJB2u

— James O'Brien