I think this is going to be a tough year... likely no playoffs and many disappointing nights... but is anybody else licking their chops at next summer?
We're going to have a roster with a lot of young players. Even if a guy like Compher doesn't breakthrough this season, they will be hammering down the door a year from now along with Jost and others.
As it stand now, we have over $12.5m coming off the books in UFA salary alone. Over another $5m in RFA salary. Out of all of these players, I really only care about Grigs and Zads.
UFAs
Jarome Iginla - $5,333,333
Brad Stuart - $3,600,000
Fedor Tyutin - $2,000,000
John Mitchell - $1,800,000
-----------------------------------
TOTAL: $12,733,333
RFAs
Eric Gelinas - $1,575,000
Mikhail Grigorenko - $1,300,000
Rocco Grimaldi - $925,000
Nikita Zadorov - $894,166
Patrick Wiercioch - $800,000
-----------------------------------
TOTAL: $5,494,166
Fingers crossed and Tyson gets a long-term contract at around $6m AAV, we are stil looking at $18 million or so in cap space with no core players to negotiate extensions on for another couple of years(Rantanen). Hey, maybe Varmalov goes in the expansion draft, or we trade him, and we're then looking at like $23 million in cap space.
I've said it for about a year and a half that the summer of 2017 will be make or break time. We have put ourselves in a good financial situation to put together a very strong team next summer, forming a roster balanced with young players and youngish veterans(Dutchy/Landy/etc.). Who's to say we don't back up the brinks truck to a guy like Brent Burns next summer? Unlikely, sure, but we'll be in a fantastic situation to not only keep our players, but add at least 2 legitimate, top-end talents.
The light might just be there at the end of the tunnel. We just need to remain patient and optimistic.