Detroit absolutely had good management, as did Colorado and Toronto. But, they also had money. Lots of it.
You can have the best front office in the world, but in a system where there are no limits to salary and payroll, the teams that were rolling in dough simply had to up any offer by a few million, knowing few if any could match it.
Those days are gone.
You're surprised by player movement? This has been expected all along.
Now's a time for new management strategies.
JF hit it on the head. As a Jackets fan, there will come a time when Nash, Klesla, Zherdev, Brule, etc. are going to be FAs around the same time. Assuming they all develop into quality players, the Jackets won't be able to keep some of them.
I accept that. It's a hell of a lot better than a system where the Jackets would face losing all of them.
And on the subject of Detroit -- it isn't just an issue of bringing in FAs. It's an issue of being able to keep your home grown players, something many small market teams have been unable to do under the old system (see Edmonton).