The time to rebuild was when Rutherford/Allvin took over. We have 5 tiers of players in my mind, not counting prospects like Lekkerimakki, Klimovich, Lockwood, Karlsson, Johansson and even Rathbone, Woo and Silovs.
The "take what you can get, even cap dumps on shorter contracts" tier of players:
Myers, OEL, Pearson, Dermott (LTIR), Poolman (LTIR), Stillman, Ferland (LTIR)
The "if we get a decent/reasonable (2nd+young roster player/prospect+) return" tier of players:
Boeser, Miller(+), Garland(+), Schenn, Hoglander
The "if we get a good return (1st+good prospect) if they're intent on not resigning" tier of players:
Horvat, Kuzmenko
The "it will take a colossal haul of just the right pieces" tier of players:
Pettersson, Hughes, Demko
And the "might as well keep them unless the return is heavily weighted in our favor because of their cheap contracts and/or new status on the team" or "wildcard" tier of players:
Bear, Burroughs, Lazar, Joshua, Studnicka, Aman, Podkolzin, Mikheyev (fresh UFA signing status only), Martin
These guys are worth next to nothing, but simply won't get us enough back to merit the logistics of replacing them at present/future cap hits. That or they're new additions to the team as UFA and would be a bad look. Take a crack if someone really gets you excited though.
Assuming we are focused exclusively on futures, anyone have a proposal for a piece they like?
(Kerfoot, Holl and Engvall need not apply)