We have 31 contracts on the book at the moment for 2015-16:
Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Ryan Miller, Radim Vrbata, Alexander Edler, Kevin Bieksa, Alexandre Burrows, Dan Hamhuis, Christopher Tanev, Luca Sbisa, Derek Dorsett, Chris Higgins, Jannik Hansen, Nick Bonino, Zack Kassian, Eddie Lack, Jake Virtanen, Ashton Sautner, Jared McCann, Bo Horvat, Hunter Shinkaruk, Nicklas Jensen, Brendan Gaunce, Dane Fox, Roberto Luongo, Andrei Pedan, Ludwig Blomstrand, Anton Cederholm, Cole Cassels, Jeremie Blain, Evan McEneny
And have 25 contracts that may be renewed:
Shawn Matthias, Brad Richardson, Alex Biega, Tommy Sestito, Will Acton, Bobby Sanguinetti, Cal O'Reilly, Sven Baertschi, Linden Vey, Ronalds Kenins, Yannick Weber, Henrik Tommernes, Frank Corrado, Ryan Stanton, Jacob Markstrom, Joacim Eriksson, Michael Zalewski, Adam Clendening, Alexandre Grenier, Peter Andersson, Joe Cannata, Cory Conacher, Darren Archibald, Brandon De Fazio, Alex Friesen
This means we have to let go of at least 6 of the following:
UFA: Matthias, Richardson, Biega, Sestito, Acton, Sanguinetti, O'Reilly
RFA: Baertschi, Vey, Kenins, Weber, Tommernes, Corrado, Stanton, Marktrom, Eriksson, Zalewski, Clendening, Grenier, Andersson, Cannata, Conacher, Archibald, Defazio, Friesen
My guess gone is Sestito, Acton, Andersson, and Tommernes. Possibly Eriksson (ugh) and Defazio.
One of Matthias and Richardson will likely be the victim of Benning's (or Weisbrod) lack of cap foresight.
One of Stanton and Weber are likely gone, as a result of (once again) Benning's utter incompetence in terms of talent evaluation with regards to Sbisa.
We are now looking at 48-49 contract spots contingent on the non-renewal of certain NHL players.
It's a bit worse than I thought.