If we go by Tatar's allusions during the time spent in the bubble at the COVID playoffs, he suggested that players would need to realign their salary expectations because of the pandemic. It also coincided with him professing he wanted to stay in Montreal. If that's not being open to a team friendly contract like Toffoli signed, I don't know what is?
How about 5M for 4 years instead of the 4.25M Toffoli signed for at the same term?
Re-signing Tatar and holding up a possibility of continuing to play with him and Gallagher might also influence Danault to re-sign for similar money.
Tatar at 5M is only 200K more than this year's Cap hit for the Habs. Danault at 5M means 2M more. That, alone, gets covered by the Alzner buyout savings after this season (2M) and replacing Weal with a quality youngster like Ylonen instead (1.4M VS 880K or a further 520K savings). That's an extra 320K net savings to apply towards an IR amount.
Passing Byron off with some draft picks would save us an extra 3.4M that could help bridge Kotkaniemi. Trading Kulak and saving close to an extra Million with Mete, Juulsen or Fleury as a 7th D could help cover Petry's raise and a bit more. Losing one of Chiarot or Edmundson to the expansion draft would cover Gallagher's raise. The ace in the sleeve would be moving on from Allen and going with Primeau to save an extra 2M towards the Cap, maybe by the cap deadline in 2021-22 to add a rental for a longer playoff push?
The key is how much Tatar ad Danault are willing to settle for, although, even if both got 5.5M, it wouldn't be impossible to keep them. We'd just have to exercise the Primeau instead of Allen option at the start of the season (which would leave more for the IR at the same time) or go with a 22-man roster tom save the extra Million needed.
I think we'd still need to go with Primeau over Allen early after this upcoming season because of bonuses both Suzuki and Caufield will likely earn.
Armia likely also doesn't get the raise he expects as a bottom line player so, he's also likely gone with ylonen in to replace him. What will need to be decided is whether Evans or Poehling, at that point, enters the 4th line?
Any way you look at it, there is no firm impossibility of keeping both Tatar and Danault. Plus, keeping Tatar also increases the odds of your pitch with Danault succeeding. It heightens the possibility of leaving him with his current wingers as a 2nd line, shutdown, two-way pivot.
Drouin - Suzuki - Toffoli
Tatar - Danault-Gallagher
Caufield - KK - Anderson
Lehkonen - Poehling/Evans - Ylonen
Chiarot - Weber
Romanov - Petry
Norlinder - Juulsen
Price
Primeau
