This offseason is time for Holland to go all-in and he knows it. I would imagine he probably has identified 3 areas of improvement that he's going to aggressively pursue:
- Top 6 D, preferably LD especially if Klefbom is done
- A true #1 goalie
- 1/2 LW
He has almost $26M in cap space and 14 contracts coming off the books. Its time to open the championship window. I imagine he spends about $14.45M re-upping Nugent-Hopkins, Kharia, Kahun, Haas, Yamamoto, Nygard/Shore which leaves about $11.55M to upgrade the positions above during free agency.
I don't think there's a #1 Goalie or a Winger available in free agency that would move the scales enough to justify spending big money.
So I present two potential solutions:
- Sign Dougie Hamilton - $9M x 8 years
- Re-sign Mike Smith - $1.25M x 1 year
- Trade Koskinen+1st+Marody to Arizona for Darcy Kuemper
- Hope that either Benson, Kahun, or McLeod can take the next step next season.
- Make a deal with Seattle to take Russell.
Benson- McDavid - Puljujarvi
Nugent-Hopkins- Draisaitl - Yamamoto
Kahun- Kharia - Kassian
Nygard/Shore - Haas - Archibald
Nurse - Hamilton
Jones/Bear - Bouchard
Lagesson/Samorukov - Bear
Russell
Kuemper
Smith
The second solution is if we decide Hamilton isn't worth it or our bid fails or he re-ups with CAR.
- Sign Ryan Murray $5M x 5 years.
- Trade Koskinen+1st+Marody to Arizona for Darcy Kuemper
- Trade Jones+ for Mantha or Sign Brandon Saad $6M x 5 years.
- Re-sign Larsson $3.5M x 3 years
- Make a deal with Seattle to take Neal.
- Re-sign Mike Smith or Sign Aaron Dell
Saad/Mantha - McDavid - Puljujarvi
Nugent-Hopkins - Draisaitl - Yamamoto
Kahun/Benson - Kharia - Kassian
Nygard/Shore - Haas - Archibald
Nurse - Bear
Murray - Bouchard
Lagesson/Samorukov - Larsson
Russell
Kuemper
Smith/Dell
I know I expanded my post to cover the entire roster, but I feel like filling out or D isn't mutually exclusive and as a result the whole roster must be considered.