Yep. The roster is going to be pretty shit next year having 14M handcuffing us on players who aren't playing day 1 is not ideal and will lead to a less than ideal roster.
CMac has a really tough job this year, we'll see how he handles it.
I really don't think it is doom and gloom. Like I posted above, if the Avs incur a 2M cap hit to get rid of Nichushkin, can re-sign Mittelstadt and Drouin to IMO fair contracts, they will have some room for a bottom six forward and 3rd pair D while running a 22 man roster.
Drouin - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Landeskog - Mittelstadt - Lehkonen
Wood - Colton - LOC
Kovalenko - XXX - XXX
Toews - Makar
Girard - Manson
Behrens - XXX
Georgiev
Annunen
Wagner
775K Defensemen
Is it the deepest roster? Obviously not. But given the cap constraints on the Avs, the top heavy cap hits, and the lack of draft picks panning out it is still IMO a roster good enough to compete for 1st in the West. A couple of moves at the TDL to bring in depth forwards could easily push this team to cup contender status.
What CMac has to do is target players looking for a Stanley Cup run and willing to take cheap, below market contracts.
I identified Tyler Johnson, but there are also guys like Adam Henrique, Tyler Toffoli, Viktor Arvidsson, Patrick Kane, Zemgus Girgensons, Alexander Barabanov, Max Pacioretty, Jordan Martinook, Mattias Janmark.
Those are guys that IMO will not be getting big dollar, long term deals (maybe Kane is an exception). The Avs just need one. They can probably get away with running one of Ivan/Foudy/Pavel at 4C until the TDL to upgrade that position.
I am not saying the Avs are loaded, and a lot of the above hinges on Landeskog being healthy enough to play a top six role full time. If he's not, they'll have to go big game hunting at the TDL and likely put Gulyayev/2025 1st on the table.