We're not built to win in the short-term anyway.
Contracts that are hurting us
We are right up against the cap with contracts that are hurting us, Lucic $6m, Kassian $1.9m (disregard last game and refer to the larger sample size), Spooner $3.1m, Sekera $5.5m, Manning $2.25m. As much as I dislike Russell's contract, he is helping us now and we need him next year too.
Trade for Burakovsky
I'd much rather make smart acquisitions at the deadline, and get draft picks for what we have. For example, someone floated a Chiasson + Petrovic + 2019 3rd trade for Burakovsky. I'd be all over that. Chiasson is having a career year, but is much older, you can't count on him continually producing at this level (on a much pricier contract) imo. Burakovsky shows promise, is young enough to grow with the team, but not so young that he's 'green'. He's having a down year, so that trade seems likely... WSH would have to retain unless we made a prior deal.
Trade Talbot
I'd also trade Talbot with 30% retained for a 2nd. People have this idea that we can sign both Talbot & Koskinen to $3m next year and keep them as our goaltending tandem. It sounds nice, but I'm not convinced that's happening. I'm predicting Talbot tests the free agent market and that Koskinen gets a $3.5m deal.
I know a Talbot trade isn't happening, because Chia wants to make the playoffs and we're not quite out of that race.
Test drive Burakovsky
Either he shows promise and projects as a long-term fixture in our top-6 (may even fit in right away), or nothing rhymes and you can package him + the 2019 2nd we acquired from Talbot for something better, more proven.
Reasons for Optimism in our System
Meanwhile, we have Benson having a solid rookie season in the AHL (especially considering his injury history and lack of development in junior as a result), McLeod appears to be our 3C of the future with possible top-6 upside given his tools, Bouchard is... Bouchard, and we have Bear/Persson & possibly Berglund fighting for jobs next season. These are players I think could possibly help us in the near future, but not quite as early as next season. Bouchard is probably the exception.
Play it slow in 2019/20
In 2019/20, I'd refrain from any big moves. We'll have Kassian, Spooner, Benning, and Manning coming off the books at the end of that season. Depending on how well Bouchard or Jones are doing, we can also look at shipping out one of Russell or Sekera (I'd obviously like to clear both contracts but I think that is unlikely). That's $9.15m of cap opening up if you don't account for trading Russell or Sekera.
My conclusion
Our current season may be a wash... if we're still in the race when Klefbomb returns, we may very well make the playoffs. I think 2019/20 is also likely a grim season, just because we're so up against the cap with a lot of marginal players.
For 2020/21 however, we have at least $9.15m of cap space opening up. We have plenty of youngsters coming up, and by then YOU'D THINK at least one of Yamamoto OR Puljujarvi are producing like legitimate top-6 forwards. We have the potential to be very competitive from that season onward.
