I've done some playing around with capgeek and overall I think we're sitting pretty cap wise. Yes it will get tight but only if Chevy is aggressive this off season. Bruins fans seem to think we can pick up Peverley for cheap (3rd) and Vancouver fans think we can pick up Booth for cheap (not sure if interested) due to respective teams cap issues. Have a look here:
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1445771
Wouldn't mind picking up Peverley for a 3rd. It can be slotted into our cap situation well. Another proposal was Burmistrov for Hemsky, we could do that as well. I think a line of Kane - Scheifele - Hemsky would be absolutely killer. It would push us aweful close to the cap, and only have a couple million for a backup tender. That's assuming we spend $15M on the big three and retain Postma, Redmond, Kulda, Peluso.
FORWARDS
Andrew Ladd ($4.400m) / Bryan Little ($4.500m) / Blake Wheeler ($5.000m)
Evander Kane ($5.250m) / Mark Scheifele ($1.563m) / Ales Hemsky ($5.000m)
Eric O'Dell ($0.660m) / Olli Jokinen ($4.500m) / Rich Peverley ($3.250m)
James Wright ($0.650m) / Jim Slater ($1.600m) / Chris Thorburn ($0.867m)
Anthony Peluso ($0.666m)
DEFENSEMEN
Tobias Enstrom ($5.750m) / Dustin Byfuglien ($5.200m)
Grant Clitsome ($2.200m) / Zach Bogosian ($5.000m)
Mark Stuart ($1.700m) / Zach Redmond ($0.715m)
Arturs Kulda ($0.605m) / Paul Postma ($0.605m)
GOALTENDERS
Ondrej Pavelec ($3.900m)
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CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $63,580,500; BONUSES: $575,000
CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $1,294,500
I probably low-balled a few of the numbers, but it gives you an idea of how much we can take advantage of other teams cap situation. Trouba can stay in the AHL until we decide which d-men to stick with and if Trouba is ready, then start trading one or two of them and call up Trouba. Buff could be moved, and I could see Stuart being moved. Jokinen frees up a lot of cap space next year. If we manage to retain Kulda I think Clitsome is optional, but there's some risk involved. It would be nice to know right now if Kulda had more upside than Clitsome. If not, we're still stuck with a bit of a hole on the left side behind Enstrom.