Don't see Johnson waiving his NTC. Even Killorn can manipulate his 16 team trade list and likely can't be traded. No, until I see could reason why all the Tampa players would want to waive, they all stay put IMO.

If they all stay put, how do they bring everyone back? It was tight for me to manage the RFAs even with moving almost 9M in cap.

Most players would waive if allowed to go to a team they like, since the alternative is unconditional waivers as they don’t have NMCs and resentment from fans for screwing the team. There’s no precedent for the idea of weaponizing an M-NTC against the team either. Killorn will likely fill his no-trade list with 16 teams he most strongly doesn’t want to play for, and if Buffalo keeps things up I don’t see them as one of those. Johnson would very probably waive for Colorado because the alternatives are worse than being moved from one powerhouse to another.

Plus, as of now, we look like utter garbage. That could help incentivize waiving clauses.

So basically your saying .. or hoping .. we can just have most of same team back next year? .. are you watching the games? .. cant put lipstick on a pig.

Definition of insanity .. doing same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Look at the players that can be moved. Don't sign Sergachov for 5.25m, trade him and 1m takes his place. or Cernak, or Point or Valiskey

TBL is not going to move Sergachev when there are 15 teams by which Killorn can go to. Killorn is going to be moved almost for certain.
Also can be near sure one of Palat or Johnson would consider at least a few teams each. TBL needs them less then Sergachev or Point.

Serg = never gets 5 million contract here for now... He is not good... he can't score a goal for his life for years... also he can't defend... try for 3 mill for start... also he has no weapons to demand 5... just no... not even close... i would give him right now 2.4 million $ @ 2 years... his other choice = sit out whole year forever and demand trade (LUL)... RFA's in this league can only hope GM's are bad like you in your proposal(no offense to you, that's what you have written in your topic, just stating facts you wrote) and they overpay young players = bad for team. They can also try sometimes arbitration which is never ends well = trade said player = can be to ottawa = rip your future... rip stanley cup dreams. If players on tampa wants to stay, they can only sign team friendly contracts, thats it... other than that, they are expendable...
What you need to do is sign bridge contracts to superstars like McEvoy in Boston for Peanuts... how close Sergachev to Mcavoy. Like Earth to Pluto.
5 mill LUL Are you guys taking history lessons from Toronto's playbook?

BTW if you never watched a tampa game: Cernak > Serg by a huge margin...

Couldn't agree more with your assessment .. Sergachev last game as #1 pair D was a disgrace .. stopped counting at TEN own zone turnovers .. I would trade him for another top 4 defensive D and a 3rd line a forward who can score. Other teams will pay for potential .. but Sergachev will KILL us in playoffs other than a sheltered 3rd pair D which is fine but only worth 2M AAV

I think you're being optimistic about teams that can afford these players or what these players at that salary. Killorn at his 15 trade list. Some many teams are near the cap that can't afford to take without returning similar money back to Tampa which defeats the purpose of the trade. Plus the contracts of many of these NTCs are that good (or bad), so the demand for these guys isn't much, especially if the new teams aren't giving much cap back.
You're right TDL needs Sergachev and Point a lot more than Killorn, Palat and Johnson...but K,P, J and trade value isn't high and then there is the NTC.
It's going to be interesting how Tampa gets cap compliant by next year. Going to a busy last two weeks of June for Tampa and many teams.
We can probably have a fact based discussion of what Tampa did at that time.
We disagree on this subject but I enjoy your posts Mr Wqrrior.