Quoting: Laudan
You are on the spot here, but things will go different way from one and only reason ( to lazy to write again ) :
When Hyman comes back, your max Roster is 21 men with 3k in the pot as OP just show.......
Is it doable ? Yes
Is it comfortable ? No
Anyone who uses Dubarelli in his statements is short sighted and old school and doesn't think long term. Is Nylander overpaid? I don't think so, he makes less than 7 million for the next 5 years and I believe he'll be a 80+ a year player. Is Matthews? No, he's a generational talent and one of the best centres in the game already, what's his ceiling? Likely less overall points than McDavid but since his team is way better than Edmonton, I'd wager he'll go down as the one with more sustained team success. To get Matthews to 8 years it would have cost a lot more 12.5 million a season, but it doesn't really matter. Matthews is going to be the best player on the ice most of the time, he'll earn his money. End of story, end of debate, every thing else on Matthews is just a stupid argument. Marner got too much but its still not a problem. He'll be above a point a game for his contract and he'll be an important part to the teams success. Those are the 3 big beefs people like you seem to have and its a stupid short sighted beef. I understand the idea that if you would have given these guys shorter deals like the rest of the RFA's took, you would be able to spend more somewhere else like keeping Gardiner but then what happens in 2-3 years when these other RFAs are up for their next contracts. What is Point going to command if he scores 100 points and 50 goals once in the next 3 years? He'll command an 8 year deal in the 13-14 million region. Same with Laine, or any of the others. But again most of that is moot, why? Because star players earn their keep. The single biggest problem in the cap era is overpaying depth guys for success that comes off the backs of others. Where Tampa is paying guys like Killorn and Palat 5 million for several years, TO is paying younger better players less money and have the flexibility to make moves to fix other issues. Like the trade of Kadri to Colorado. Things get tight next season? Trade Kapanen for a defensive upgrade. He's young, has a lot of potential, and will bring back a great return from teams that need speed and scoring help.
As for Hyman, and all your other thoughts on burying depth to make sure they don't score enough to get an extra million or two, that is literally the worst idea I have ever heard. Lets just go ahead and make our team worse so we can save some bucks here and there. There are no words to explain how bad that is.