Flyers: Carlsson, Next Steps and More

Before everyone tells me I’m an idiot, I know I am 100% in the minority here. I’m glad the deal fell through. All I could see was that contract handcuffing the team for the next 5 years. It took almost a decade to get out from under all the bad contracts this team had.
Also, how many times have we signed a big player and by the end of season 2 they are on the 4th line or a healthy scratch? When we resigned JVR, everyone said “the Flyers are making a splash”, he didn’t even make it a full season before he was on the 4th line. Hayes played great his first season then we see where that went. Honest question, was Briere himself the last big free agent that was worth the paycheck? I guarantee I’m wrong, but nothing is jumping off the top of my head.
I know it’s an overly conservative mindset. Maybe I’m just being dumb, and it would have been the best thing ever, but it felt like the risk out weighed the reward to me.