Last reply to you [mod].
Let's say we buyout our own players rather than acquire phaneuf, poof, 7.5m of additional cap space. 4.2m in LTIR from Macarthur. We also keep Zib at 5m rather than Brassard and run Duchene-Turris-Zib-Pageau down the middle (that's serious centre depth). The extra first and second round picks we sold are used in the Duchene trade to make this possible. We're suddenly at 64m in cap with zib's raise factored in. Add 5m raise for Karlsson, 5m for stone and 2m for Duchene, 2m for Ceci and presto 78m cap hit that begins two seasons down the road and the cap THIS YEAR is projected at 80m. If it goes up another 3 or 4m the next year we have tons of space by the time those contracts kick in. Not to mention we have Brown, Batherson, Formenton all coming up on the cheap that will begin replacing overpaid vets as soon as next year (Burrows and Pyatt expired before those renewals kicked in which drops another 3.5m from our cap). We have a good chance of drafting a special player on the cheap this year on top of that to augment the roster even further and possibly make some of the aforementioned guys expendable for more picks and cap space.
So, I'm no cap wizard, no buyouts done, no Robidas island mischief and by not being cheap I just assembled a contender under the cap long term. Took me all of 2 minutes