There have been cap management issues, we won't argue there. Thankfully Brown's bonus is only one the books for one year, and Neal's is almost up. Unfortunately, we have dead space from Campbell for the next 4 years (next year's increased penalty on Campbell eats most of what would have come off the books from the Neal deal), and yes, Nurse costs us at best 1-2M, and when he is playing bad, he isn't worth half of that contract, which offsets some savings. But if you add up the bad deals vs the team friendly ones, it actually balances out.
Bad contract negative values
Neal buyout - 1.9
Campbell buyout - 1.1 this year
Nurse - for argument's sake, we'll say 4M in the negative
Bonuses from last year - 3.55M
Total - A disgusting 10.5M in wasted money
Steals
Draisaitl - let's be conservative and say we are saving 3M on what he should be paid.
Bouchard - at least 5M below what he is producing
Hyman - probably 3M below what he should be making, assuming he doesn't score 50 again.
McDavid - probably 2M below what he should be making
Skinner - let's say 2M savings to be conservative.
Total - 15M
So it all comes out as a wash in the end. Edmonton is actually ahead of the game a bit. But it still sucks, because with those value contracts, we should be a dynasty. Can you imagine what else Edmonton would be able to add with an additional 10M in salary? Ugh. It also sucks because 4 of those 5 value contracts are due for raises in the next two seasons. Bouchard and Draisaitl, big ones for sure. Double ugh.