Next season we currently have $49,260,227 committed to 8 returning forwards, 4 returning defensemen (including Campbell) and one goalie. That leaves us $15,039,773 to resign Voynov, Martinez, Bernier, Clifford, Ellerby, Muzzin, Nolan and Lewis as our RFA's.
Let's assume they all resign for their current salary, which is basically a zero probability. Those eight guys would earn a total of $6,208,333.
You can add about $50,000 to that since Nolan and Campbell currently are making less than what the leagues minimum wage will be next year ($550,000).
So, assuming we pull off the impossible and reupp all those guys for the same salary, that leaves us $8,781,440 to replace Penner, Gagne, Scuderi, Drewiske and Richardson.
Now obviously odds are pretty good that Voynov will be demanding a raise, as will most of those RFA's. Even if we were generous and assumed no more than a 20 per cent raise across the board for them (could be much higher if Voynov signs a long-term deal) then we'd be reduced to just over $7.5 million to repalce those five UFA's. And you'd have to imagine DL would like to keep at least $500,000 open in case of recalls or injuries.
Semin demanding $5+ million a season would essentially eat all of our budget for replacing those UFA's, two of which are currently in our top five defensemen. It just doesn't make sense, barring a trade of some sort.