So here is what I would do:
At this year's trade deadline I would look to move Edler + Sutter to Nashville for Fabbro and a 1st round pick. I would also move Gudbranson to Florida for a 2nd round pick. Both picks being in the 2019 draft.
On July 1, after paying his final big bonus, I would talk Eriksson into retiring. Threaten him with waivers, do whatever I gotta do to get him off the team.
Those moves clear up a lot of cap space. I would then feel comfortable with offering Mark Stone $48M over 6 years. I would also attempt to bring in Artemi Panarin for 6 years, $54M (I doubt we can get both, but wouldn't be bad to attempt to, assuming we could dump Benning's bad contracts). Would need to find a way to dump Beagle. Schaller and Gagner could be buried for another year as this plan would have enough cap space to allow for that.
I would also look for a couple veterans on cheap contracts to fill out the roster. Tyler Ennis, perhaps, would be a solid filler as he is versatile and can provide decent offense. On D I would look at some veterans to round out the roster. See if Jay Bouwmeester can get back into form on a cheap contract, as a placeholder for Juolevi (hoping he can make the jump, otherwise it's bust status for him). Nick Jensen is also someone who could be a solid option on the bottom pair on the right side.
The key will be to not overspend because we'll need to hold back some cap space for the raise Pettersson will get, and the anticipated raise Hughes will get in a couple years. I would love to also take a run at another high ticket defenseman, but that could get us into cap trouble.
Panarin (9) - Pettersson (3.775) - Boeser (7.5)*
Baertschi (3.367) - Horvat (5.5) - Stone (8)
Roussel (3) - Gaudette (0.925) - Virtanen (1.25)
Gaunce (0.75)* - MacEwen (0.925) - Leivo (0.925)
Ennis (0.8)
Forwards: $45.717M
Hughes (3.775) - Tanev (4.45)
Hutton (3.75)* - Stecher (2.325)
Bouwmeester (1.5) - Jensen (1.5)
Juolevi (0.925) - Fabbro (0.925)
Defense: $19.6M
Markstrom (3.667)
Demko (0.925)
Team: $69.909M
Estimated cap: $83M
Estimated cap space: $13.091M
I like the top 6. The third line, if Gaudette develops, can be a solid one. Fourth line should do a decent job defensively, with a bit of pop.
Defense is still very much a work in progress. That's an indictment of Benning's past inability of bringing in any kind of NHL talent there.
I get this isn't exactly realistic, and these bad contracts aren't going to just disappear. But if they could....and if we could coax two high ticket free agents to come here, it could be decent.