Have to think both Strome and Dvorak make team next year.
Our returning salary numbers appear to be close to $26.5 M (I think that this uses AAV)
Smith: $5.67M
OEL: $5.50M
Vermette: $3.75M
Michalek: $3.20M
Hanzal: $3.10M
Richardson: $2.08M
Domi: $0.86M
Duclair: $0.77M
Martinook: $0.61M
We also have Pronger's and Vitale's cap hits as well, which would total an additional $6M or so.
Following are RFAs that I believe are going to be re-signed (?? regarding status as RFA or whether we will resign or not):
Stone
Sekac??
Murphy
Rieder
Tinordi??
Connauton??
Domingue
Dahlbeck
Szwarz??
Gaudet
Plotnikov??
That seems close to $10 - 14M for players likely on one ways: Stone, Murphy, Rieder, Domingue, Dahlbeck, Gaudet.
So maybe $42.5 - $46 M in cap hits before UFA season??
Doan comes back at $2 - 3M
Dvorak and Strome make team: $2M combined
So, my guess is we will be somewhere around $49 - 51M assuming we keep Pronger and Vitale's contracts. So, $5 - 9M to put us at $56 - 60M in total salaries?
Target Goligoski, Hamhuis, Polak, Quincey, or Demers in FA.
Explore for a top 4 R or LHD - whichever we don't get from who we target in FA. Not saying that this is the ideal scenario, but again, our C depth is pretty loaded: Hanzal, Vermette, Richardson, Strome, Dvorak, Gaudet, Dauphin, MacInnis. If we had to give up Hanzal and his smaller contract for a top pairing RHD or 2nd pair LHD (contracts will likely be $1-3M above Hanzal's for another 2-4 years), we can add some back-end gritty forward types for about $1M per year and still wind up in that $57 - 60M range. Hanzal, Dahlbeck, and NYR 1st round pick may be able to get us someone for another 2-4 years that we can rely on in the back end.
That will allow us to keep Plotnikov and add another player like Mike Brown or Dale Wiese.