Las Vegas will most likely take one of TB's #4 dman or 7th forward (Killorn or Garrisson, the latter being very cheap in real salary), one of Brodin or Scandella, Vatanen or Silfverberg (depending on what happens w/ Bieksa) and Plekanec/Shaw (both cheap in real salary, especially if Shaw's signing bonus will already be paid) and one of FLA's goaltenders (the argument about real money is even more significant).
That's a ~21.5M caphit for 5 players. 33.5 millions left for 17 other roster players to reach the floor. That's less than 2m per player. They'll be able to sign some free agents. They could take on a cap dump like Orpik or Bieksa for a big return. If they trade for Brook 5.5M AAV Orpik and some picks, they'll only need to use 28 millions for 16 roster players. That's 1.75M per player. If on top of that LV signs a UFA to a reasonable 4M AAV deal, it shrinks down to 24M$ for 15 roster players. 1.6M per roster player. I already made my point, but I'll go a step further: if they take on Moulson's cap hit (5M x 2, drop to 3M real salary the last year), 19M for 14 players. Now down to a 1.36M$ minimum per player.
They don't need to take on anyone's crap just because. They aren't desperate enough to do anyone else some favors. Frankly, every year fans scramble to come up with some reasons why X system will conveniently save them from the awful contracts their teams signed with no repercussion whatsoever. Sometime it happens, but it's pretty rare these days unless the cap dump gets LTIRetired. Today it's the expansion draft. Next season, it'll be the inevitable lockout caused by the nasty signing bonuses.
