Budaj is in charge of the AHL/ECHL prospects for the most part. Parkkila most likely sets the standard but neither runs a goalie department on the Avs. More like a partnership where Parkkila is more in charge. We don't have a goalie department on the Avs and even with Billington's new position I still don't think we do.
Optically it's hard to argue though that a guy who hasn't been involved in goaltending in ~20 years suddenly ending up head of goalie development looks like just giving a guy a job to ride out his contract in. It'd make more sense for taking a step back by just being head of player development or special assistant to the Hockey Ops Pres or whatever.
He likely is riding out the last of his deal. If you know his history and how he got involved on the AHL side in general, the special projects part makes a ton of sense. Higher level, more process and system rather than day to day.
Results wise, the Eagles have gotten a lot better and the AHL program is as good as it has been in a very long time. With the ground work put in there and the foundation a lot better than it was in Cleveland, maybe he’s just ready to not handle the day to day of managing an AHL team. It is a lot of work with basically no reward.
The speculation (and it really is that until we know more) is negatively biased because people don’t like him.