"a guy" in this 5-year scenario is Larkin, Mantha, Svechnikov, AA, Ouellet, Bertuzzi, Russo, Saarijarvi, Cholowski etc. all or some of which will be very cheap assets for us the coming years, while expensive veteran contracts like Z, Howard, Kronner, E, Franzen and Green will come off the books. Helm costs the same money whether he's 1st line or 4th line. It doesn't become a better contract if he's given 20 minutes a night in the top 6 and is 'meh' instead of being 12-15 minutes per night on one of the better 4th lines in the league. Team performance is the most important thing, much more important than never having someone in the bottom 6 making more money than someone in the top 6.