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Thoughts on this? Are the trades realistic? We might need to offer more for Theodore, a 1st instead of a 3rd. I'd be willing to do that if we intend to re-sign him.
I think Detroit might go for the Trouba trade. Holl was their least used dman last year. At the very least, Trouba should help their PK. We could drop the pick, take back one of Matta or Petry, or retain on Trouba, though I'd very much not want to do the latter. Matta and Petry both have 1 year remaining and could take Mancini's spot in the lineup. They'd have to retain a bit on Maatta, as he makes 3 mil. We could fit him in at 2.5 mil. Edvinson can take Maatta's place for Detroit.
Othmann could take the place of Berard, they could split time, or even Chmelar could get a shot. I think that top 6 gives Kakko his best chance at success. He needs a guy like Trocheck as his center. He's never going to mesh with Mika. Mika should hopefully find his game again playing with Panarin and Laf. If Kakko doesn't take the next step, or Othmann/Berard/Chmelar/etc. aren't effective, maybe Perreault can step in late and add a spark, a la Kreider in 2012.
This lineup leaves us with a bit of cap space, which will both help us at the deadline and help us going into next offseason. If Holl totally sucks and Mancini isn't ready, we can add a dman at the deadline. If we have to take back Maatta or Petry, their cap hit is off the books next summer.
In 2025, Lindgren can be traded (assuming no NMC). Holl can be bought out or demoted if we can't find a team that will take him for nothing. Goodrow could potentially be moved too or bought out (we'd save nearly 3 mil). And the cap should go up another 4 mil, if not more.
As of today, we have about 33 mil in cap space for 2025-26. With these moves, we'll have about 28 mil, if my math is correct. Is that enough to re-sign Theodore, Laf, Miller and Shesty, plus fill out the rest of the roster? Probably not, but we can create more space as I noted above. I think we can make it work.