IMO he is planning a retool to try and be a top 3 cup contender for the next 3 years. He has so many options now due to him being the first to break rank (rather than everyone else "wait and see") it's not even funny. I bet his plan is relatively fluid other than a major move or two. He will have a young team and a talented team.
He could potentially eat several of the big fish in UFA. That's like adding 4-6 first rounders worth of talent by taking a minor loss of something like a few second rounders. Insane trade off if true.
He could offer sheet the talent in Tampa and/or NYI. That's grabbing high end talent for like 70 cents on the dollar if he succeeds.
If the offer sheets are matched, he can circle back and try and nab assets for 60-70 cents on the dollar for the teams now desperate to be cap compliant. If they refuse and dump assets to non contenders, this still benefits CBJ.
Of the teams rumored to be planning to dump salary towards the floor and refuse to compete (Arizona and Buffalo for instance) he can try and nab pieces at 60-70 cents on the dollar again.
And that's just assets.
Once the dust settles, I think only 3-4 teams look to remain contenders AND be on the upswing from the eastern conference.
The vast majority of the contending teams out east are in the down swing due to cap structure, loss of key players, or likely stagnation due to aging cores. Rest are unlikely to be competitive due to a variety of other reasons.
That's one of the best opportunities to have one of the more unobstructed paths to chase the cup than normal years.
CBJ and Carolina are my favorites out east right now to make ballsy moves to steal the pole position as top team in the east.
West I don't know yet. There's a few gm who are looking to do massive retool and it just depends if they actually try to pull it off. I hope calgary figures out how to jump into the uncontested top 5 from out west though.
I hope it's that crazy. I'm pretty excited to see what happens.
Nothing is guaranteed, but the current environment is an unprecedented opportunity to try and gamble with better odds than normal.