Have YOU looked at their cap situation?
19 million in space, 9 free agents coming off of one-way deals, 16 players out of 23 spots under contract.
Even at a conservative estimate, Marchand is going to make $6.5 million a year, Bennett will make $8, Ekblad will make $6ish. Realistically, if FLA had their choice, they would take the 14 million ish combo of Marchand and Bennett, I think.
Now back to those 9 free agents. Seven of those guys played most nights in the starting lineup: (Nosek (59 reg season games, missed all of Oct with injury), Marchand, Ekblad, Bennett (could've included games played, but they're obvious starters), Samoskevich (72 reg season games), Sturm (62 reg season games), Schmidt (80 reg season games)), and then there's Vanecek, and the Panthers kind of need to have at least someone playing backup goalie. Jaycob Megna could go and it wouldn't make a difference.
So you start with 19 million, give roughly 14 million (remember, that estimate is pretty conservative, both players are easily worth more on the market) to Bennett and Marchand, and then are left with $5 million to fill out basically the entire 4th line, the backup goalie, and an entire defensive pairing.
I don't think anyone in that group would take sub $1 million (maybe Sturm would, but he's aging and could easily crack 7 figures elsewhere). Schmidt could probably make $3 million or more on the season he had. 5 points in the cup final alone as a bargain bin defenseman?
I don't think they're signing 26 guys to one way deals, but they can't realistically have a season with an active roster of sub 20 players under contract.
