Assuming CMac is looking to add two Dmen by the TDL, and that Kylington and Malinski would be the ones coming off the roster to make room (either by demotion or trade), that leaves the roster below and $7.499m in capspace to use towards two Dmen to have a 22 man roster (13F/7D).
Say for example that one of the two Dmen acquired would be Dumoulin @50% ($1.575m), acquired using one of the two 2025 2nd round picks. That still leaves plenty of tradable assets and $5.924m to allocate towards a RHD.
With Manson aging and hitting UFA in 2026 one would think that CMac will have an eye on the future and try to get a solid 2nd pairing type of RHD with some term (or at least team control) if he can.
That being the case it's easy to see why Jones would be of interest, though he'd have to come in at closer to $6-6.5m to make it work without sending money back.
Capwise the one that makes the most sense on this scenario is Rasmus Andersson at $4.55m X2. Adding Dumoulin at 50% and Andersson at full value would still leave $1.374m to put towards a 23rd roster player, like another depth forward for instance. Andersson would also have an extra year of term that would align with Manson hitting UFA, which makes it easy to use Manson's money to re-sign Rasmus.
In an ideal world the RHD replacing Manson long-term would be someone a bit bigger and more physical though, so we circle back to Jones again. Honestly just find a way to acquire Jones with some retention, he ticks all the boxes.
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