I posted a version of this earlier in the general thread, but it's relevant to today's discussion. I'll just paraphrase mostly ... but this is rosterbating at it's finest.
Obviously next year ....
Jamie Benn| Tyler Seguin| Brett Ritchie
$5,250,000| $5,750,000| $894,167
Val Nichushkin| Jason Spezza| Ales Hemsky
$2,125,000| $6,750,000| $4,000,000
Cody Eakin |Joe Thornton| Colton Sceviour
$1,900,000| $6,750,000| $650,000
Antoine Roussel| Vern Fiddler| Ryan Garbutt
$2,000,000| $1,250,000| $1,800,000
Veteran Depth||
$650,000||
Alex Goligoski| Brenden Dillon
$4,600,000 | $2,750,000
Brian Campbell| Patrik Nemeth
$7,142,875 | $1,250,000
Jordie Benn |Jamie Oleksiak
$700,000 | $1,250,000
Jyrki Jokipakka |John Klingberg
$750,000 | $950,000
Kari Lehtonen
$5,900,000
Jussi Rynnas
$562,500
You'd have to get rid of one D in that scenario so I went with Daley. If it was Jordie that'd be fine too. With Daley out though, the total cap hit for that team is only $65,624,542, and that includes full bones for Val and Ritchie (not likely they hit all of them). If you swapped Benn for Daley, the cap hit is still only $68,224,542.
I tried to go as unlikely HIGH as possible to new contracts with the exception of Spezza. It's pretty amazing to consider you could afford that team next, and they'd be below this year's cap. Next year because of the Rogers contract, the cap should go up several more million dollars than normal. There's likely no way Dillon, Oleksiak, Nemeth, Jyrkipakka, and Klingberg would could collectively that much against the cap. It's reasonable to assume at least one would potentially be gone for Thornton or Campbell.
Honestly ... I'd say that D would be good enough to at least put them in consideration for Cup contenders considering the forwards.
Goligoski-Daley
Campbell-Dillon
Nemeth-Oleksiak/Klingberg/Jokipakka/Benn