That's isn't really the question though. It was either you re-sign Ceci at his QO of 4.3M I believe or taking Zaitsev or letting Ceci walk and then replacing him with a UFA who'd be paid just as much.
We could have qualified Ceci for 1 year and seen how he adapted under a new coach and system.
Let Ceci walk (or trade him for a small futures package) and go for a UFA (Gardiner, Chiarot, Nemeth, Benn come to mind as having been available, but I think all are LD)
Replace him internally (Run with Chabot, Brannstrom, Wolanin, Hainsey, DeMelo, Boro, Goloubef, Jaros)
I don't mind Zaitsev and Brown is a great 3rd liner imo, so I'm fairly happy with how this turned out so far. Zaitsev's term still scares me though, what will he look like at 32?