With the Flyers hiring a new coach who relies on veterans and Giroux is clearly their heart-and-soul, there's no way that Philly ever considers trading him for a questionable prospect and draft picks.

Similarly, all you need to see is the Sharks' reaction as a team when Pavelski was seriously injured and hear the player interviews to know that Pavelski is revered in San Jose by players, management and fans. They won't allow him to walk away in free agency.

If you take those two scenarios out of the mix, the roster pretty much looks unchanged....?

Yeah I see your points. The picks in the Giroux trade are pretty decent though.. 7 and 20's + a conditional..
Nylander is still a pretty solid prospect. I think that package is reasonable should Philly want to make the move to get younger.
Lets put it this way. I don't think it is far off.

The Sharks are going to be in cap hell this summer. Decisions are gonna need to be made. Could easily see the Sharks opting for younger more long term pieces.

Fair criticisms though

If you're a Flyers fan, you surely know the pressure they face to always be a playoff team - with Fletcher entering his first full season and with a veteran-inclined coach like Vigneault now on board for $5Mx5 years, do you really think they'll subscribe to dealing their most valuable player in Giroux now? There's no indication of a rebuild about to happen, where the team would normally want picks and young prospects like Nylander…..so while the principle of your proposal is sound for a rebuilding situation, I don't see it applying realistically to what's presently the case in Philadelphia.

Also, with San Jose, look how long they stayed loyal to their core of Thornton, Marleau and Pavelski….and Burns is now in that mix as well. I think their cap problems will go away when Karlsson leaves in free agency to whichever team opens the vault to him (you know someone will offer him $11-12M).