Presume these players are on the roster: Nash, Stepan, St. Louis, Hagelin, Miller, D. Moore, Fast, Lindberg, Glass at forward. McDonagh, Girardi, Staal, Boyle, Klein, and Kostka at defense. Lundqvist and Talbot in goal. That leaves $13,638,333.
We have to sign Zuccarello, Kreider, Brassard, and J. Moore and attempt to add forward talent. If we estimate a squeezing everyone you wind up with Zuccarrello at $3.5 million, Kreider at $2.5 million, Brassard at $4 million, and Moore at $1.5 million. That eats an additional $11.5 million. We're left with the following roster plus $2,138,33 in space:
Kreider-Stepan-Nash
Zuccarello-Brassard-St. Louis
Hagelin-Miller-Fast
Lindberg-Moore-Glass
???
McDonagh-Girardi
Staal-Boyle
Moore-Klein
Kostka
Lundqvist
Talbot
So if we get all of our RFAs to go along with team friendly contracts we have $2 million and change to add a top nine forward. This is a downgrade at forward barring breakouts from the Miller/Fast/Lindberg group. Dan Boyle might upgrade the offense from the blueline, but he's a drop off from Stralman defensively. We're also not just hoping for, but relying on three rookies to grab spots in Miller, Fast, and Lindberg.
The situation is pretty dire and the cap crunch illustrates that we can't afford to be paying Klein $2.9 million for third pairing minutes. I know people hate Diaz, but I'd bring him in at $900K, flip Klein for a second round pick, and use the space to make some upgrades to the forward core.