Some thoughts:
1. Kravtsov and Kakko won't be "10m players" coming out of their ELCs. I put 10m within quotes, to get the opportunity to emphazise that I with 10m players refer to today's levels, they will be resigning in the summer of 2022, who knows what the cap will be then,
They won't have the same immediate affect as like a Jack Eichel had. Kravtsov won't get 20 goals from using his release on the PP like Laine.
I think we can assume that their 2nd contracts will be fairly reasonable. More Barkov style than Eichel style.
2. Gorton should keep Steven's badge in his inner pocket (I hope there is where he kept it, and didn't gun for synergy effects with his lucky jockey's).
I don't think any team deserves more than a 20% tag in relation to their probability to win a Cup these days. That also applies for Tampa. Dallas won last night. But it will be tough for them to get 8 wins this off-season. Their depth played well last night, that is the key for them. That Roope kid was flying. But if Ottawa could get to the ECF three years ago, so can Dallas, with some luck. Zucc scored a goal for them last night, but played pretty crappy overall. Made a big defensive blunder. It was pretty bad timing for him to break that arm, he was basically playing the best hockey of his career. Since the deadline he has played what, 10 periods of hockey? The timing isn't quite there.
We can gain three 1st rounders the coming months, or get none. Maybe its more fair to describe it as two 1st and one 2nd, since Tampa's in fact means that we move up from 62 to 31, of which the value probably is pretty equal to a mid 2nd, depending a bit on who is still left on the table. But nothing is guaranteed. There is probably fair reasons to believe that Zucc will resign and that we will get Dallas' 2020 1st, but its not guaranteed and I do think its hard to argue that its even probable that we will get one of the 1st rounds this season. But impossible? Hardly, we could get 2 with some luck...
3. Its the time of the year you must keep in mind that NHL GMs is a fickle bunch. Things that are set in stone a week ago can certainly be yesterday's news in just a few weeks or after the Cup is raised. Everyone were talking only about speed and skill in 2007, then Anaheim somehow manage to steal a POs series against Detroit which they had no reason to win, and then their top Ds in Pronger and Neidermayer, first line center in Andy McDonaly that was a real speedster, and good mix of size and grit easily allowed them to beat a pretty flat and overrated Ottawa team. All of a sudden size and grit was all that matters in June-July 2007.
And its the same with players. We have discussed Subban here, Nashville fans are talking about him like he is Girardi II, but who knows what his stock will be worth in a couple of weeks or months. Remember Nash during our cup run, how much his stock fell from the last day of the regular season and during the POs.
Gorts need to keep his options open. I think that means that he should invest in the blueline and pursue the trade route rather than the UFA market. Things can change, however.