Apparently you didn't read my reply to your thread in the other post...Yzerman has been juggling the cap for 9 seasons, especially the last ~6-7. He'll surround himself with the right staff to make us & keep us in Cup contention for a good 5-7+yr. window. It can be done, we may have to lose (trade) a piece or 2 & replace with good to bluechip ELC guys, rinse repeat. In 5 yrs if we have to trade a Fabbri, Mantha and/or Bert, so what? They'll be 29, 31 & 30 respectively by then. Their best statistical years are likely behind them, or soon to be by then. We can even go with 1A/1B goalie & save cash if we find the right ones.
This is why I'm glad Yzerman is not handing out big/long-term contracts right now. Get Bert cheap for 1 more year, then decide his true value (I love Bert, but don't wanna pay more than $4.9 as he may be on L2/L3 within ~2-3yrs).
Remember when every year for about the last 8+ seasons most people said CHI, then later on TBL etc. couldn't wiggle around the cap, guess what they did. Won some cups in the process & TB's window is still wide open for the forseeable next few years at least. It can be done.
1. Yzerman had the selling point of no state income tax which, like it or not, did help him keep guys at a lower cap hit.
2. In case you're not paying attention, Tampa is currently f***ed with the cap, to the degree that they had to waive a quality NHL player. Granted, that's not because of bad management, it's because of an overflow of talent, but they're still getting crushed by the cap.
3. How many of Tampa's major players on that Cup team did Yzerman grab from free agency, like you're suggesting? The answer is none. I don't think I can remember Yzerman signing a single big name free agent to a max term contract during his time in Tampa. Not one.
4. You really want to use Chicago as an example of a team that, "Wiggled around the cap and won Cups"? Yeah, let's analyze that...
2014 - 2015: Chicago wins their most recent Cup. Kane and Toews' extensions kick in, raising them from $12.6M total to $21M total. A year later, they threw $7M x 8 at Seabrook and had to trade Panarin for SAAD.
Guess how many playoff series' they've won since Kane and Toews' extensions kicked in. I'll give you a hint... The same number as that team in Canada who also pays multiple players $10M+ a year.
12-13: Stanley Cup
13-14: Game 7 loss WCFs
14-15: Stanley Cup
-------KANE/TOEWS EXTENSIONS------
15-16: Game 7 loss, first round
16-17: Swept, first round.
17-18: Missed playoffs
18-19: Missed playoffs
19-20: First round loss. Shouldn't even have been there. Only 12 games left in the season and they were the worst in their division by five points.
So no, Chicago is not an example of a team that was able to successfully maneuver around the cap... If anything they're actually evidence of why your, "Throw $30M at Barkov/Werenski/Larkin", idea doesn't work...