I was taking a look at roster configurations for next season, and the more I build a lineup for next year, the more it becomes clear that Hanifin probably doesn't fit. With the way the team looks now with Duclair, keeping him and Stamkos, provided Stamkos is willing to take in the 5-6 aav range, seems like the best path forward. Signing Hanifin in the 6.5-6.75 range may allow them to keep Duclair, but not Stamkos, while also having very little additional space to address the big hole left by Stamkos. They can keep Stamkos and Duclair, get rid of Sheary and perhaps Perbix, and sign a dman in the 2.5-3 range. They could also keep Perbix, and then after replacing g Sheary with a call up and re-signing Chaffee and hopefully, Motte, have 1.5-2 to allocate to either a depth F or dman.
They could also move on from Jeannot and them have 4-4.5 million for two spots, but I have doubts they are moving on from Jeannot after the season. While it would've been great to have Hanifin, signing him leads to significant weaknesses in the forward group next year imo, and the team can still find a solid lower end 2nd pairing/higher end 3rd pairing dman with the room they'll likely have. I guess if Stamkos chooses the bag then they could sign Hanifin for what he'd likely cost, but then if they want a competent middle 6 forward with upside they'd have to move both Sheary and Jeannot to give them max space to acquire one in ufa(this would amount to 3-3.5 max, after factoring in Hanifin, Duclair, Chaffee and Motte, if they keep him). I guess it is an option, but the offense looks much weaker moving ahead in that scenario with the imbalance in spending on the blueline.
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