Karlsson has an $11.5M cap hit for 4.5 more seasons. Timo Meier has a $6M cap hit. Not sure what the prorated cap hits look like since I’m not sure how many days are left in the season but I think at absolute best case they retain to make it an even $10M/year hit for EK, which again is highly unlikely given the term left but let’s just go with it.
For next season they’d need at least $19M for both players and that’s assuming $1.5M retention. That’s Kuznetsov + Eller + Mantha + Orlov (give or take), and that’s without discussing trade compensation.