This is bad everyone says no

Rangers aren’t going to take that Gourde deal for only a third. It’s going to have to be linked to a high pick, top prospect or Sergachev/Cirelli. Best bet is hoping for the CBO

What is that Kaprizov trade!?!? I can't see Calgary or New York rangers doing that

Except maybe MTL

Lightning better pray there is a buy out or they are in a really bad spot and every team knows that. Don’t think too many teams will want to help out one of the best teams in the league. Even if there is a buy out and the cap goes up they are in big trouble. They are either gonna have to pay to drop guys like gourde and Johnson and those guys can waive if they want. Trade top young guys like Sergachev, Cirelli. Or maybe even trade Point because he lacks trade protection. They are in a very ugly place. Will be very interesting to watch

Trading two NTCs and oneM NTC...hardly practical. Rangers have enough cap problems without adding 5.16m for the average Gourde.

The Lightning are from in an ugly spot lol. If the cap stays flat or even goes down slightly, there's a high chance of then either a cbo or other cap relief measures. In this scenario the Bolts make it work fine by moving Killorn(late 1st if there's multiple teams interested but at least a 2nd+), Paquette(4th range) and buying out Gourde or Johnson. It is also likely Coburn is off the team one way or the other as well(trade or waive/buy out if neccessary). Tampa makes a 21 or 22 player roster work fine. Before ppl spout about supposed OS, there's been 1 in 7 years, so let's not act like those are happening every year. Tampa gets players to take less for many reasons(staying with a great team, great place to play, happy with the organization, no state taxes etc.). Tampa has been in similar, supposed impossible cap situations before and yet kept all their key rfa's. Those who know Tampa know this off season isn't that much different.

Let's assume for the moment that Killorn and Zadorov have the same trade value, even though Killorn is 30 and Zadorov is 24 and still a Restricted Free Agent; it's always hard comparing the respective values of a forward and defenseman and often it depends what a team's needs are. (For example, the Kings would much rather have Zadorov and the Ducks would much rather have Killorn.) Jost is clearly more valuable than Paquette, having outscored him each of the three years they were both in the League. Then you've got Colorado giving up their first for a second that is more than 31 places later. So far, this trade is heavily slanted towards Tampa. Then you've got a 2021 third for a second one year later, a 2020 fifth for a fourth one year later, and finally a 2021 seventh for a 2020 sixth, which is the only element of this trade that favors Colorado significantly because there is a value to getting a player one year earlier even if the player is taken one round later. All in all, this is a very bad trade for Colorado.

It all depends upon whether the cap will rise and/or whether there will be a “free” buyout. Right now Tampa has 15 players under contract totalling $76,166,666 in cap hits, which is $5⅓ million below a $81½ million cap. Good luck signing Sergachev for 2⅓ million, Cirelli for $2 million and Cernak for $1 million, and even if you do, you have only 18 players on the roster. So regardless of how successful Tampa has been in the past negotiating their cap situation, this summer they’re almost certainly going to need help from the outside in the form of a cap rise, a free buyout and at least two of their bottom-6 waiving their NTC’s.

That's not accurate at all re needing 2 to waive. Killorn, the buyout of 1 of Gourde/Johnson and moving Paquette frees up over 11 million. Adding in Coburn frees up 1.7, so before factoring in replacements, on a flat cap Tampa has over 18 million to work with. Between 10.5 and 11 will be used for Cirelli, Serg and Cernak. Rutta for 1.4 or 1.5, Stephens and Verhaeghe in the 900k range, Foote at 925k, Maroon(if he wants to stay) in the 900k to 1 range, plus 2 or 3 guys in the 700k to 900k range(1 or 2 depth defenseman and/or 1 or 2 F such as ABB, Joseph, Volkov, Raddysh, Conacher, Smith etc.). Tampa can definitely ice a strong 22 man roster with a flat cap, and either a 21 or 22 with a slightly reduced(unlikely, but possible) cap with the cbo or other measure of cap relief.

You "added in" Coburn, who is the second guy you need to waive that I was talking about.

Coburn would be the only player they would have to convince to waive in the scenario I was talking about. Killorn must submit a 16 team list, Paquette can be traded with no issue and the cbo would be used on 1 of Gourde or Johnson. Players in Tampa have waived before and if it came down to needing the extra space, Coburn could also be bought out or waived to save at least some of the 1.7 hit.