1) Sell at least two of: Daley/Jensen/Nyquist/Helm (1 mil retained)/Glendenning gone at the TDL. Would include Vanek but NTC
2) Pray for Jack Hughes or KK.
3) Bring Steve Y on as a senior advisor of GM (read: the one really pulling the strings), and have him and Zetterberg talk up Detroit to Karlsson, selling potential. For this reason pray San Jose massively disappoints. Probably a pipe dream, but hey, I'd be happy with even a 5% chance, and maybe Stevie and Hughes could convince him.
4) Do no re-sign any older players. If Nyquist wants to come back after being traded for similar money, sure, but not much more than he is getting.
I would say a Nielsen buyout could be on the table, since he'd only have two more years after this one and 4 years paying 2.5ish million isn't bad, but maybe he'll wait until Stevie takes the helm the summer after next so only 2 years on the book.
Dream lineup which will NEVER happen but let me dream.
Mantha-Larkin-Bertuzzi
Rasmussen-Hughes-Zadina
Athanasiou-Veleno- Helm
Svechnikov-Nielsen- Abdelkader
Karlsson-Cholowski
Green-Dekeyser
Ericsson-Hronek