100%. I'm a bit worried that our FO are worried about term. That is not a battle they should be fighting these guys on. Get their AAVs down for longer term. That's how you keep a contention window going.
They need to really go for it with this core.
The biggest thing they need to do is be cold hard bastards when it comes to Mikheyev. I like Mikheyev and I feel bad for him coming off his injury and I'm sure he'll do better next year and in a perfect world I'd love to keep him and see him bounce back ... but you have to do whatever it takes to get him outta here because if you can you're essentially trading him for Joshua or Zadorov who are so, so much more important.
If they hop all aboard the hope/feels train like Gillis did with Ballard in 2011 when they should have fired him out of a cannon, it's a massive mistake.
With that in mind, as much as I have enjoyed/am enjoying this season, waiting until this summer to buyout OEL would have resulted in pretty huge cap savings over the next few years.
We aren't where we are now if the organization isn't decisive about moving out players who didn't fit and didn't work and didn't compete, and put the team they wanted in place.
We're where we are because we have leadership and direction from the top, and keeping OEL around like a bad stinky Benning fart because maybe we'd have a bit less of a buyout hit is the most Dave Nonis-y stuff imaginable.