We need to get Trouba signed long-term even if we overpay a bit to get it done. The money we are currently paying to our top 6 D-men cannot continue long-term if we want to remain competitive. We can afford bigger contracts to the Top 4 but our 3rd pairing will need to get cheaper to accommodate bigger contracts for the young guys and keep the big boys happy. Looking at the current contracts on D, we have one big contract per year coming off the books for the next 4 years. Enstrom, Myers, Kulikov, Buff all expire one year at a time freeing up money to redistribute. Trouba and Morrisey will be our top pair for the foreseeable future and they deserve contracts that reflect that. Our second pair will include Buff for the next few years and he has shown that he can carry a cheap, good value partner. Assuming Enstrom and Myers leave over the next two years that still leaves Kulikov as a good fit on the second pairing for the next two years or Kulikov can anchor our third pair. Either way, the path to being able to afford big contracts for Trouba and Morrisey is to lean on Poolmans, Nikus, God help us Chiarots, Morrows, maybe Stanley at some point in his life. We won't necessarily be as deep as we are currently but I think having 3 star defenders and 3 cheaper "good enough" defenders will keep us right near the top of contenders through our window.
For funzies, assume cap hits of 7.6 for Buff, 7 for Trouba, and 5 for Morrisey. Then throw in 1.5 Poolman, 1.5 Chiarot, and 900k for Niku and we have 23.5million cap hit for that top 6 just by letting big contracts expire/trade deadline cash-ins instead of the current 27.5 million for our top 6. That gives us an extra 4 million to spend on forwards/Helle even after signing Trouba and Morrisey to long-term deals for big money.
I'm really not that smart and can see this path (with some tweaks) can easily work. I'm sure the really smart guys negotiating the Jets contracts can figure out an even smarter way to redistribute the cap hits year by year. One thing is really apparent, we have a smart guy in Chevy who staggers the contract lengths in a way that always leaves himself a big contract or two coming off the books every season so he has flexibility to make these things work. Smart guy, I trust him to keep himself out of a Black Hawks situation where he's got no flexibility and has to let a couple of guys go every year.