If I were ottawa I would play boedker on the 1st line and give him a ton of PP time. It doesnt really matter what happens in the end for OTT and he will most likely put up a decent amount of points. there will be a buyer for him if he does.
I would also try and trade demello and do everything I can to take on bad contracts like they did with callahan and Gaborik. having 16 million is such a waste and they could get some decent picks back when taking on bad contracts. guys like Bogo, Martin Hanzal or Sam Gagner

Huge asterisk on taking on bad contracts: Melnyk. As much as Pierre is doing, he is always going to be handicapped by a cheap owner.

To answer the Boedker thing: he is barely an NHL player on a bad Ottawa team. He fell off a cliff after the off season and came back out of shape with a torn motivator cuff.

Yikes I had no idea about boedker. If they make some cap dump trades towards the deadline they will only have to pay a very small amount of the contract but it definitely is tough with melnyk

I usually make a Boedker to Arizona trade with Hossa and a pick involved for cap floor security for next year. Hossa's contract is a Melnyk wet dream where the player only makes a million (with a high cap hit) but the contract is insured so he only pays a small percentage.