But sitting around clutching your cap dollars and refusing to sign impact free agents, because you are worried about something that will not happen, isn't "smart."
It's harmful to your team's chances of success.
Now if you want to argue that Panarin isn't worth the money he will be paid, that's another argument. But the argument that is currently getting play on this board isn't that Panarin isn't an elite, team-changing player. It's that he's great, but signing him will hamstring us from signing other players such as Kreider, Howden, Buch, DeAngelo, players who are clearly supporting players, to long term contracts.
And while it is true that all teams who end up having multiple superstars eventually have to pick who to pay and who to let walk, there simply is no evidence that would support the notion that we are not in a great position to re-sign all the players we will truly want and need to have a Cup Contender. Starting with the fact that there's no credible evidence that the cap will remain stagnant. All the evidence says, it's going up.
Worrying that it will stay stagnant is not smart, it's paranoid. Refusing to sign a guy like Panarin because you are worried about it is foolish, because there's no tangible likelihood that the cap doesn't increase dramatically to allow us to keep all our key, long-term guys.
As you went on to address, the real question is, how do we navigate the current year or two crunch we are in? Which is no big deal, because the worst case scenario is buyouts, and even that, as has been discussed here ad nauseum, does not really hurt us long term from signing everyone we want. These buyouts will be ending before most of our guys are off ELCs. A better option is to trade guys away now to make room, so we don't push it into the future, and there's a tangential debate surrounding that (should we take pennies on the dollar for Namestnikov? Etc). But maybe trading guys away even at discounts isn't possible.
If that's the case, oh well. We are not screwed. We'll be fine.
We need to get through this offseason. We need to sign Trouba and the RFAs. And I'd prefer to be able to lock up Buch and DeAngelo to more than bridge deals, if possible, because it saves a ton of money long term.
If we need buyouts to do that, then do it. If we can trade away Names and Strome for futures, so much the better.
And if we can trade away Names and Strome for futures, AND trade away Kreider + Buch + a middle-of-our-system defensive prospect (like Hajek or Lindgren) for a young top 6 center, then I'm ecstatic and I'm kicking in kickstarter money to build a statue of Jeff Gorton outside MSG.
