A lot of this is just wishful thinking but I am going with the idea that we realize that this roster is not going anywhere. Try to move as much deadweight out as possible and assume next season is going to be a tank.
Likely Trades:
Bjorkstrand (TDL or off-season) - 1st round pick or a promising prospect
Gourde (TDL) - 2 x 2nds with 50% retention
Borgen (TDL) - 2nd
Tanev (TDL) - Bag of pucks
Tolvanen - 2nd + 3rd
Difficult Trades:
Schwartz (off-season) - 50% retained for 6th round pick (expiring contract)
Burakovsky (off-season) - 50% retained + 2 x 2nd round picks (from TDL trades) for future considerations
Buyouts:
Grubauer
I am guessing Schwartz is easier to move because Burakovsky has been absolute garbage. My intent is moving one of them because moving that many vets is unlikely.
Roster for next season:
Eberle-Beniers-McCann
?-Stephenson-Burakovsky
Winterton-Wright-xx
xx-Kartye-xx
Larsson-Dunn
Oleksiak-Montour
Evans (re-signed)-Mahura (re-signed)
Ottavainen
Daccord
??
Hopefully the bottom 6 can be filled out with some combination of Nyman, Roed, Morrison, Melanson, Firkus and/or some cheap UFA bottom-6 signing under 1.5M. The above roster has 20.5 M cap space assuming the ceiling as 93M (it is likely to be higher). More than enough money to get a goalie backup for 3M and get a stop gap top-6 F (or we could just keep Schwartz who will be on his last year).
The cap flexibility is great and we are likely to have a few more picks/prospects as well.
