The LAST thing I want this team to do is make a trade. Our “playoff contender” window doesn’t open until the Suter/Parise cap penalties expire.
Technically, I think you can make the argument that it opens next year. Although that argument would’ve been easier to make if the team had an extra $8M in cap instead of being tied up in Zucc + Foligno.
As things stand right now though, they have $12.1M in space with this roster:
Kap - Rossi - Boldy
Johansson - Ek - Zucc
Foligno - Gaudreau - Hartman
X - X - X
Brodin - Faber
Middleton - Spurgeon
Merrill - X
Gus
Wall
Hopefully those open spots can be filled with some of our ELCs. I’d like Dewar back around $1.2M. So you’ve got roughly $11M to fill a 4LW, 4RW, 3D, and extra skaters.
Assuming you can fill 3 of those spots with an ELC, they’ll have about $7-8M to play with in FA to improve the lineup and drop other guys down a spot. This is why I still don’t understand the Zucc or Foligno re-signings at all. Add that cap to their new extensions and they could’ve brought in 2 high-end UFAs on $7.5-8M contracts.