I love most of the signings. Except for Pateryn, they are great fits. Johnson or Mrazek, since they're at the top of the league in rebound control, if they come cheap, would be ideal backup/project goalies for a legendary goalie
coaching staff that's the best at teaching guys to stop the first shot, but the worst at teaching rebound control. If the goalies can teach each other some things in camp, and work on them all year, they might all improve a lot. At 1M, with no penalty for going to the minors if Samsonov starts to really tear it up there and earns more than just a rookie cup of coffee...... yes, that is a huge win. I'd offer that to each of them, and then do another round of calls at 1.5....... and then wait a couple months and see which one of them calls back first.
Nick Holden has years of 200 hits and 100 blocks. He's got 9 points in 20 career playoff games, including 1 point in two games this year with Boston. He's 31 and seems to be slowing down significantly at both ends of the ice, but he's still a huge upgrade over Kempny or Djoos right now, to say nothing of Ness, etc. I'd certainly watch the tape of the playoffs and see why he was only in two games, though, before pursuing him. I mean, the underlying numbers say he's six years younger than Orpik, but Orpik's numbers this year say Orpik was fifteen years younger than Orpik. Logically, Holden at 31 and 32 should be better than any 40 year old, but this ain't logic. It's sports. If it's the same money, I'd rather sign Joe Thornton than either of them.
Pateryn I understand the excitement about but at 2.5 I'd pass unless you can get Bowey to agree to drop back to the AHL on a waiver-exempt deal and get his offense together. Bowey's potential is too good to waste. Back to back 60 point seasons in juniors from a defenseman? Awesome. I've been signing Pateryn to all the Caps teams I built that lost Carlson's minute-eating, mildly abrasive defense to free agency. Since Carlson stayed, I'm fine with starting Bowey and Orlov together, and even trying Bowey out on a 2nd power play unit in practice, and a 3rd penalty killing pair, and just having him ready in case of injuries. I don't think 2.5 gets you Pateryn, and I wouldn't think this team needs him if it did. Now, if you got crazy and traded Niskanen.... then you better sign Greg Pateryn, even at market value which, with Carlson gone, a temporary shortage of right defensemen in the NHL, and no better defensive RHD in free agency than Pateryn this year, is going to be 4M/yr. Pass.
The big hole in the above roster is a right shot faceoff specialist. Assuming you are Brian MacLellan, congratulations on the Cup win! Keep up the good work. Try and trade that bloated Kempny contract sooner rather than later. Great ideas on a couple of these moves, and if your scouts are all sure that Perlini has a higher ceiling on his own than Burakovsky, then, sure, maybe trade him because fine, you need some cap space and you need a center for Hershey... but if this is your plan for the summer..... I made you a list yesterday of right handed UFA centers. Have some intern make a spreadsheet with their most recent years' faceoff stats, and get one, because having five centers doesn't give you as many advantages on faceoffs as it should if your right circle defensive zone draw specialists are Oshie and Smith-Pelly. Those guys need to save some of their strength for some offensive zone shifts because in recent seasons/postseasons, each has shown himself to be among the best right wings at scoring goals.
Trading Burakovsky for Perlini and cap space for Pateryn, if it means losing Madison Bowey on waivers, seriously hurts this team, in four years. That's when Niskanen leaves, Bowey becomes another #1 defenseman, and Pateryn, who has passed thirty points once at any level on hockey DB, is a 30-something third pair stay at home UFA, slipping off to retirement without a press conference. Perlini could be decent by then.... or whatever top prospect one can get for Burakovsky could be decent by then. Sending Burakovsky way out West is nice, but unless you project Arizona to really make the playoffs or re-sign him long term, they'll think sending him back East to a contender at the deadline is nice, too. I'd rather he end up in Edmonton or Colorado, who are less likely to flip him to New York or Pennsylvania.