The key to a successful Dubas offseason to meaningfully remake the team, produce upgrades and keep the Big 4 together can be found in the "Kapanen Method."
That is you take tradeable assets and move them out for pure futures to replenish the organization, while simultaneously translating those cap savings to buy big on a pandemic deflated free agent market.
In the Kapanen method, we got the Amirov pick, Hallander and a bunch of other trimmings for moving on from Kapanen.
This summer, I would probably look at trading Jake Muzzin as the big sacrifice, work with Seattle to determine whether they are picking Dermott or Kerfoot and then dispose of Kerfoot if Seattle doesn't want him and then also let Andersen walk and make a final decision on Hyman. If we lose all of these guys, we gain about $16 million cap space. Then there's the lower end free agents like Simmonds, Thornton who might add another $2.25 million to the pot.
Then I go spend that money like a drunken sailor: target big ticket Dougie Hamilton to replace Muzzin. Re-sign Morgan Rielly within reaason. Get a platoon goalie, and look at forward options like Palmieri, Granlund. If we don't have success with Hamilton, maybe we bring on a couple of extra D like Larsson, David Savard and a reclamation like Ryan Murray. Maybe be we look at Taylor Hall finally or Gabriel Landeskog.
Basically the idea is to carve out as much cap space for futures as possible and then spend the money aggressively. The big enemy here is a stagnant roster and nibbling around the edges. Dubas needs to attack the middle class contracts, bring in a flow of assets and then spend that new found cap. He did it last year. He's got to do the same again this year.
