To be fair.
They were in the playoffs at the time of the stoppage. They were very likely to make it to the playoffs had it played out naturally. They went to game #5 of a special 5 game play-in with Columbus while coming in cold and out of shape in the summer months. The same team that swept Tampa, this years champion in the very first round the year before. They were a tough play-in opponent and the play-in is not how that usually works.
They signed Muzzin, Holl, Mikheyev and Engvall to fairly significant raises. The cap didn't go up and they had to find a top pairing defenseman to replace Barrie, their top FA who came in last season with 50% of his salary retained. They needed to also replace Cody Ceci and did with Bogosian.
They needed to cut from the middle of the lineup, which turned out to be Kapanen and Johnsson, which is very common even when the cap doesn't stay flat for two years. They got plenty of futures for them and the necessary extra cap. They also had a mission to change the make-up of players coming in this season. Trading Kapanen and Johnsson opened up cap and roster room to sign Simmonds, Thornton, Vesey and Bogosian to bring some jam to the lower half of the lineup. The only issue really was that Kapanen, Johnsson and Clifford, all players lost this summer were players that played gritty. So, they more or less replaced the toughness they lost. Maybe, gained a bit.
Holl's contract doesn't look that appealing. He's been a depth player for a while and has worked his way into the lineup. The 3 year term initially surprised me. 2 years would have been fine at the same dollar amount. But, I still think he could end up being roughly worth 3.5M-4M per year during the duration of the contract, but he has signed for a fraction of that. He would be my choice for worst contract. I think he is lost to expansion.
