"Today we're a different team, and I really like the way it's structured right now," Holmgren said.
Carter is heading to Columbus is exchange for the No. 8 pick in Friday's NHL draft as well as a third-round pick and 21-year old forward Jakub Voracek.
Richards will be packing his bags for Los Angeles and former Flyers coach Terry Murray. In return, the Flyers will receive young forwards Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds and a 2012 second-round pick.
Being such close friends off the ice may have factored into the decision to deal both Carter and Richards. And Richards' rocky relationship with the media is worth noting.
The two were the last of an era, players who came up through the system with former coach John Stevens. Now, the team belongs to the 23-year old Claude Giroux and the 22-yeard old James Van Riemsdyk.
"Certainly the emergence of Claude over the past few years has been a factor," said Holmgren who compared Giroux to Richards. "I think [with] the ascension of James over the last part of the season and particularly the playoffs, I think we have two good young players there who are on the verge of doing even better things for our team."
Carter has a cap hit of $5.27 million, with 11 years remaining on his recently-signed extension. And Richards has nine years remaining on his deal with a cap hit of $5.75 million. Before the two trades, the Flyers had nearly $59 million committed to 18 players for next season.
The salary cap has been set at $64.3 million. So there was little room for Bryzgalov. But Holmgren claimsed the two trades were just savvy moves.
"This had nothing to do with financial at all," Holmgren said. "What we did today was make two good hockey trades in our opinion."
Holmgren did say, however, that there was no discussions with other teams about Carter or Richards until the Flyers acquired Bryzgalov's rights.
