Lenny7
Joined: Jan. 2017
Posts: 13,291
Likes: 11,051
I'm not really sure how the Oilers would manage to actually sign Hall?
My math could be completely off here, and it's definitely rough, but:
The only somewhat major contracts that you're losing next year are Gagner, Manning and Smith (combined $7.4 mil). Brings you down to $72-ish mil. I think it's pretty much a given that the bottom 6 will cost somewhere around the same as it currently does, regardless of the players that are there. Then, you've gotta give Darnell and Bear raises (Benning as well?), and sign a backup goalie.
So, say you give Darnell something like $6.5/year, Bear something closer to $2.5-3, Benning $2.5, and a backup goalie $1.5. There's something like $6 mil. Plus you add $4.5-5 more to Hall to get him to Panarin money (gotta assume that's what he'll be looking for), so you're closing in on $11 mil (extremely close to $83 mil cap with a 19 man roster).
I suppose you could then buy out Russell, but something tells me that buying him out, and adding someone to fill that hole will essentially cost the same ($3 mil cap hit in 2020), or you could attach an asset to him to move him as a cap dump (but you've given up a lot of futures already to get Hall).