If Drouin does indeed return and the Habs take a chance on Kotkaniemi's and Evans' progression to share middle-6 C duties (with the risk of having to deal from a weak position during the season to acquire a stop-gap) :
Drouin - Suzuki - Caulfield
Toffoli - Kotkaniemi - Gallagher
Hoffman - Evans - Anderson
Lekhonen/Byron - Paquette/Perreault - Armia
Edmunson - Petry
Romanov - Savard
Chiarot - Wideman
Kulak
Price
Allen
PP1 : Hoffman - Suzuki - Caulfield - Drouin - Petry
PP2 : Toffoli - Kotkaniemi - Gallagher - Romanov - Wideman
PK1 : Paquette - Armia - Chiarot - Savard
PK2 : Evans - Lekhonen - Edmunson - Petry
Cap space : around 3,7M if we exclude Weber's salary, include Byron's full 3,4M and re-sign Kotkaniemi to a bridge deal under 2M AAV.
Under the assumption that Montreal uses their depth of wings (Drouin, or more realisticly Lekhonen) ; prospect pool (Poehling, Harris, ie) and draft picks to acquire disgruntled RFAs who filed for arbitration with their teams (Andrew Copp in Winnipeg and Vince Dunn in Seattle) :
* Lekhonen Dealt / Drouin Staying:
Drouin - Suzuki - Caulfield
Toffoli - Kotkaniemi (>2M AAV) - Gallagher
Hoffman - Copp (4,5M AAV) - Anderson
Paquette/Byron - Evans/Perreault - Armia
* Drouin Dealt / Lekhonen Staying:
Toffoli - Suzuki - Caulfield
Hoffman - Kotkaniemi (>2M AAV) - Gallagher
Lekhonen/Perreault - Copp (4,5M AAV) - Anderson
Perreaul/Lekhonen/Paquette/Byron - Evans - Armia
Edmunson - Petry
Chiarot - Dunn (3,5M AAV)
Romanov - Savard
Kulak - Wideman
Price
Allen
PP1 : Toffoli - Suzuki - Caulfield - Hoffman - Petry
PP2 : Perreault - Kotkaniemi - Gallagher - Romanov - Dunn
PK1 : Copp- Armia - Chiarot - Savard
PK2 : Paquette/Byron - Evans - Edmunson - Petry
Cap space (Lekhonen Dealt) : around 0,8M if we exclude Weber's salary, include Byron's full 3,4M ; re-sign Kotkaniemi to a bridge deal under 2M AAV and sign Copp and Dunn for a combined amount of 8M AAV.
Cap space (Drouin Dealt) : around 3M if we exclude Weber's salary, include Byron's full 3,4M ; re-sign Kotkaniemi to a bridge deal under 2M AAV and sign Copp and Dunn for a combined amount of 8M AAV.