Its unfortunate they signed Miller over Horvat first, as it would of been better to have Horvat locked up in this situation due to his center ability. But at this point with the constant rotten starts, lack of d, and future lack of center depth they should really just get rid of as much as they can prior to next season, keep a few of the younger players and build properly around them with a strong draft coming up.
Before TDL the following would need to be gone:
Horvat (upcoming UFA)
Miller ( Trade before NTC kicks in, id even retain under a mil to entice team considering the cap goes up, and yes that hurst long-term)
Schenn (proven 3rd pairing on cup team)
Borroughs (good depth d for playoff team)
Rathbone (is stuck behind oel, and hughes, wont get PP1 time, wont get more than third pairing minutes)
Pearson (good playoff bottom 6)
Hoglander (mid 6 who cant play defence, hit 50+ pts once due to the team having no one better than him to play)
Bear (unless you can re-sign him long-term at a lower cap hit to play 3rd pairing, having him higher is not good if you want to improve d)
Kuzmenko* ( IF they cant sign him long-term before tdl you have to capitalize on that contract and player to a cup contender, the chemistry he has with pettersson instantly is a reason you keep him though)
Offseason:
Myers (should be easy with bonuses gone and 1 year left for a rhd , the market sucks and he can play minutes)
Boeser* (looks like he needs fresh start, give him tons of minutes to end of year to see if he can find it again, if youre lucky he does, if he doesnt with the extra time the point total will get a stupid gm to bite)
Garland (probably a decision between him and Boeser)
Demko* (depends on who the team acquires, picks, but it could be 3-4 years before the team gets to where it should be after trades and his friendly contract would be over by then. could you get a Nemec or L.Hughes in a deal for him from NJ?)
The team should only target picks, young rhd, and young centers. Of course they will get cap dumps back but if they are 1 year contracts they can be retained and flipped if the player is decent.
You realistically cant do anything about OEL, the price to dump would be too much. Buying him out, and trying to replace him with someone of equal ability/better doesnt make sense cap wise. Best bet is LTIR in the future
Ideally you keep Hughes, Pettersson, Mikheyev, 1 of boeser/garland, Podkolzin.
See if you have anything in any of your d prospects, and play them it cant get much worse. Great draft too.
Also give players like Karlsson, Klimovich, Lockwood an extended look to see if they have the talent, and can find an extra level for the NHL.