As a Devils fan....I can honestly say be careful with trying to move too quickly to go from cellar dweller to contender. We learned the hard way after making the playoffs in 2017-18 during the middle of our rebuild. It was a fluke and we thought we were much further ahead than we actually were. It definitely set us back a few more years.

My observations:

1. I'd rather have Cholo and Rass than Brodin. Brodin's point increase has everything to do with puck luck, as he's still a negative Corsi player. His on-ice shooting % this year is at an all-time high for him (4% higher than his average). You are essentially getting a PK guy for 1 year (he's a UFA in 1 year) for a #3 center and at worst a 5/6 dman you have multiple years of control over (especially if Stevie wants to increase the quality of his 3/4 - 3 pairings).

2. Kerfoot and Turris are basically the same guy (except 1 is a few years older). They are also blocking Veleno and/or Rassmussen from coming up and playing in their spots. I can see Stevie wanting Kerfoot (but not for those 2 picks, you don't get 2 picks for 28 points), but Turris makes no sense as he'd run contrary to Yzerman's plan (unless he can get him to flip a bad contract). Also, Veleno and Lafreniere have a history together already (Veleno still needs a 1/2 season in GR, but you don't want to block that).

3. Bertuzzi will get more than 5mmx6. If his comparable is Tom Wilson (who got 5.166x5 a few years ago), then with the cap increase he'd get 5.4x5. If he has a higher comparable (which his numbers show he does, he's a .6PPG player on a team that can't score), he's probably closer to 5.5-5.75x5. The issue Bert has is there isn't a ton of guys that score dirty at .6PPG anymore, so this will be a tough eval.

4. Probably still not a playoff team, but it should contend more (but that's because of Lafreniere, Seider, and Zadina coming and growing, not because of the newly signed guys). I think you'd get the same results with those guys and not trading/signing anyone from the outside.

I agree and also I don't see why we need to buyout Abdelkader. Yes, he is terrible, but we have the cap space to just eat his contract. Buying him out will only make us have to have in count towards cap when we become good.

not if its a free CBO

If they have a CBO, then you definitely CBO him. If not, you have to bury him. Too many years left on the contract to buy him out, and if Stevie does this right, he'll need all the cap he can get in a few years.

Of course you buy out abby, he's not an NHL player and you take cap space when you can. I'm all for kerfoot, wing or center he's still growing as a player.