If the sharks could land either of tavares or marner for "free" it would be amazing. To be honest, if the sharks can acquire as many 1 year salary dumps as possible or sign as many top UFAs on overpaid 1 yr deals, it would be a fascinating strategy with tons of upside.
1. Players on to-be-ufa years have extra incentive to be awesome. So if the sharks get several, they might actually compete.... but if not....
2. they will have an army of picks for rental return. Tavares or Marner would be worth at least a 1st or more to any team at the deadline. So getting either as a salary dump would be like trading cap space for picks, and getting a good player too.
imagine getting marchassault for 1 yr 10M, Duchene, 1 yr 7m, Toffoli, 1 yr 7m, Myers, 1 yr 6M, TJ Brodie 1 yr. 7M.
the sharks would quickly hit the near the cap. they'd keep 100% flexibility going forward, add some pretty good players, who might be happy to get overpaid. If they compete well next year, then YAY! if not, what would be haul at the deadline for those 5 guys? Likely a couple 1st and a couple 2nds.
In other words, translate 40M in cap space into a potnetially competitive team at best, and 4+ picks in the top 60, along with the 2 1st rounders and the 2nd you already own. It could realistically put the sharks with 4 first rounders and 3 second rounders next year with that strategy.