I don't think Tampa would opt to trade McDonagh -- he was an absolute beast all playoffs long. Tyler Johnson would certainly be the Lightning top trade option, in my mind. As a Devils fan, I'd be willing to take on Johnson's deal, but only if it meant also getting a player like Cernak or Cirelli at reduced cost. I'd add Sergachev to the list, but as with McDonagh I'd have to say that the Lightning will go to any possible length to retain him in the fold. I think most knowledgeable fans would agree that Cernak or Cirelli are the likely names to leave Tampa if they can't find another way to get under the salary cap.
If the world was functioning normally and the cap was rising yearly I would agree with you because McDonagh’s 6.5m salary wouldn’t become much of an issue if he stayed healthy. I just don’t how they can keep all these defensemen in the next few years and considering his back is becoming an issue he might be the expensive guy to dump on defense.
If Sergachev is a future top 2 he will need big money after his bridge deal and Point’s got two years on his left. I know everyone Ohs and Ahs over those bridge deals but you can only give those once to each player and making them all so short has certain drawbacks. Johnson and Killorn could get them under the cap this off-season at best but the cap not likely rising much at all in the next 4 years.
BriseBois was presumably planing on limboing under an upper limit that was getting a big bump from Seattle alone. (Vegas brought a 4.5m jump in one year.). I’m not sure what they need to do to make it work but short term they are going to have enormous trouble trading those forwards and long term they have a lot of stars to pay.
I don’t know how interested Fitz is in taking any multiyear deals on, they are all cap dumps in this market. I would want things like team’s 2022 1st (top 3 protected only) and go from there, there can’t be that many takers for those forwards.
