Instant need for a backup goalie? Stolarz is signed for this season. Miller will probably cost $1.125 mil.
Low spending? Did you forget we tried to go after D Faulk and his $6.5 mil contract? We walked away due to term, not money. We traded for Gudz and his $4 mil per year contract. If you look at capfriendly, we spent up to $78.692 mil with $2.807 mil available for 2019 season.
Anyhow, your first sentence says we have only $4 mil to play with today, but then imply that we had a lot of money to play with last year with your "budget" quotation makes me wonder why you're playing both sides simultaneously. Did you know you're showing that?
Do we need a PP specialist? Yes, we do need a PP specialist, but that's looking at it in a vacuum. We have a set top-5 for our blue line with Lindholm, Fowler, Manson, Gudz, and Djoos. We're looking at filling the #6/#7 NHL spot. Curran could be a good small win for offense, but we don't know much about defense. Remember, Shattenkirk went cheap last year to TB and we offered Shattenkirk a two-year contract worth over $4 mil. Shattenkirk bet on himself on a cheaper contract because it was a one-year contract. But back then, we only had a top-3 with Lindholm, Fowler, and Manson to where Shattenkirk would be in our top-4.
In 2017, we made the playoffs. Our PP rank, with respect to goals, was 28th out of 31 teams as we managed only 38 goals. The PP efficiency was 17.8%, ranking 23rd.
I would love an significant get, but unless we make a significant trade we're not in a position to be heavy buyers. We're in an odd transitional stage. I'm open to upgrading, but you gotta have a large scope in doing this while not presenting contradicting ideas.