Let Armia, Tatar walk. Edmundson or Allen claimed in the ED.
Extend Danault $5m x 6 years, Kotkaniemi $5.5m x 6 years, Lehkonen $2m x 4 years, Poeling $1M x 2
Sign Caufield, Harris, Norlinder, Mysak, Ikonen
Drouin - Suzuki - Anderson
Toffoli - Kotkaniemi - Gallagher
Poeling - Danault - Caufield
Lehkonen - Evans - Byron
Chiarot - Weber
Romanov - Petry
Edmundson - Fleury
Price
Primeau
I believe Kotkaniemi and Suzuki will both prove themselves to be every day top 6 centres by the end of this season and will be due substantial raises. Habs seem to like to sign their young core players to 6 year deals (Pacioretty, Gallagher, Price, Drouin all signed 6 year deals their first time up with Bergevin) so I'm guessing a 6 year deal for KK.
Hopefully by the time Suzuki is up the cap has moved a little, plus the Habs can move the Byron contract, even if they have to pay to do it. Chiarot will be up by then so that should be enough to sign Suzuki to a 6 year deal somewhere around $6-7M.
Gallagher got 6 years on his UFA contract so I'm predicting the same for Danault. That's the same contract as Pageau's deal and I think that's a good comp for Danault.
For complimentary players, the Habs tend to prefer 4 year deals (Byron, Desharnais, Alzner, Toffoli, Edmundson), which is why I think Lehkonen will likely get a 4 year deal.
I think with Covid, term is actually the best way forward for teams. By giving term, they keep the AAV low to weather the cap storm now, but when the cap finally goes up, it will only make the value better. This only works if you're signing the right guys, which I think there's doing a lot better now than they were a few years ago.
I think the idea of bridging Kotkaniemi or Suzuki is a little risky, much like the Subban bridge. If you bridge a guy and he explodes, now you're in cap hell. If Subban had been offered a 6 year deal instead of a bridge maybe you get him for $5M x 6. You give KK a 2-year bridge at 21 and he hits 23 and he's a 6'2" PPG 200-ft player...now you're not looking at $5-6M, you're looking at 9-10M.
Similarly, the risk is reasonably low, even if KK or Suzuki doesn't explode, but sort of plateau's as a solid 2C.
I like this team and I think the core pieces could be here for a long time - KK, Suzuki, Danault, Gallagher, Anderson, Drouin, Weber, Petry, Romanov, Price. This structure also the core to stay together and be complimented by good players like Toffoli, Chiarot, Lehkonen, Evans. I like the group of D coming in - Norlinder, Guhle, Harris. I think the goaltending looks good. Finally, this team is starting to look like a proper program again.