Edited Jun. 20, 2018 at 5:14 p.m.
You're overvaluing Trouba, Tanev and Morrissey by about a mill each. These aren't premier puck movers they're just solid defensemen, and Tanev is a 4th liner. A good 4th liner but not almost twice as good as Copp. That's ridiculous. If you don't take my word for it, take Matt Cane's.
Trade Myers because you can't have a 3rd pairing man playing less than 20 minutes a night make 5.5mill. Trade Perrault for the same reason and because Vesalainen is ready for the NHL.
Don't trade Mason, because the 4.1mill cap hit for 1 year isn't bad if you do the two previous trades, and Eric Comrie is absolutely not ready for NHL duty.
Next year trade Kulikov, because trading 1 year of 4.3mill is exponentially easier than trading two year of that cap. That will give you enough cap to sign Wheels, Laine, and bridge Connor.
If Connor won't take a bridge, let Wheels walk because 91 points is overrated when 46 come on the power play as a facilitator for 3 of the best shooters in the NHL. Vesalainen should be ready to replace him, and Scheifs becomes the new C. This is the worst, worst case scenario, but all in all, it could be much worse.
Two years down the road when his NMC turns into an M-NTC ship Little off to Seattle in exchange for either sending a high draft pick or a year of Buff to make that contract easier to swallow. Use the cap space to sign Roslovic, a bridged Connor, Niku, and Vesalainen.
This requires us in the next two or three years to acquire a strong RHD prospect to replace Buff and one of Stanley or Samberg to replace Kulikov. Trade the remainder of Stanley or Samberg for that RHD prospect or draft a strong RHD with one of the picks we get for Myers or Perrault and we're in the clear.
Congratulations you have successfully escaped cap hell without trading off a young star player, and hopefully without losing Wheeler.
And what Scarbrow said. 5 stars from me as well, for having me really puzzle this one out.
Bonus: I didn't mention our bottom 6, but with Lemieux, Appleton, and Tanev all being pretty decent or projecting as pretty decent 4th liners that shouldn't be too much of a problem. For a bonus RW depth, I wouldn't mind seeing us trade for Jake Virtanen or Oliver Bjorkstrand this year, or Colton Sceviour in the next couple years.