Get Minten and potentially Cowan up here and give them the season to learn and grow, warts and all. Increase the roles of Knies, McMann, and Robertson too. Rielly, McCabe, and Benoit will remain on defence, don't particularly care about Liljegren one way or the other right now, I suppose if he's cheap keep him. No idea what to do with Timmins. He's still under contract and he always trips his way into points so an extended look may be in order, again warts and all. Niemela is our "best" defenseman prospect but after the steady stream of small stature guys in Dermott, Liljegren, Sandin, and Hollowell who did nothing for us I'm really not all that interested in him as a player, especially after having Benoit fall into our laps and seeing him have a bigger and better impact on this team than any of those guys just by virtue of being 6'4" and a son of a bitch to play against. Cade Webber is now in the system, he's a massive dude, good defensively (in college at least), and shoots left. Could be a fine enough Edmundson replacement going forward if not right away.
Would love to make Woll the full time starter but he’s so injury prone I'm not entirely sure how viable he is going forward. Samsonov is done here and he can take his erratic play and mind somewhere else. Laurent Brossoit would be a great target as a backup/insurance, outside of him the goalie free agent market is really gross so we better hope we can win his sweepstakes.
Defence needs at least one more guy that can move the puck, probably two. Rielly had a relatively poor season and a dismal playoff and Liljegren hasn't shown to be that guy. Montour is the best guy on the market for that, shoots right, and is a good Ontario boy, but I doubt he'll leave the Panthers for us, and even if he did he'd be looking at like an $8 million AAV here, while in Florida he'll probably sign for $2 million less than that and after taxes would take home the same amount. Sean Walker is a UFA, he's small but at least he's proven to be a capable puck mover at the NHL level. Pesce would be a good target as a capable shutdown RHD, Tanev would likely be cheaper but at 34 who knows how much he's got left in him.
Don't particularly care to target UFA forwards, lack of cap space is already going to make it difficult to build a new defence corps and find another goalie, not to mention we've got lots of young forward prospects who could be capable of making an impact. I wouldn't mind Domi returning if it's at a similar cap hit but despite his passion I'm not married to him. Same with Bertuzzi, liked his battling with Marchand and he came on strong to end the season but he'll likely price himself out and he only had a so-so postseason. No one else listed as a UFA really interests me.
I’d go hard after Brossoit, make a push for two of Walker, Pesce, and Tanev, and kick the tires on Domi to see if the money could work. Infuse this team with youth and bide time until next off-season when Tavares and Marner are off the books, especially if you can’t convince Mitch to piss off this off-season.