To answer the question in the description.. Cole and Johnson.

What next season?

The answer is Yes and maybe. Z gets moved for BB and Timmins is most likely a call up. Johnson logs the 2nd most minutes on the team, and our #1 shut down D. He's not getting bumped. Cole would be the next to fall.

No Graves?

Byram starts and stays with the team unless he struggles immensely (though if next season there is a truncated season like 50 games all bets are off).

Zadorov is the most likely candidate to be gone.

No way they put Cole w/Makar on the top pairing.

What’s your plan with Graves?

Mostly likely pairings IMO

Graves Makar
Girard Johnson
Byram Cole
7th UFA

You forgot to resign Graves....

Our D will probably look like this to start the season:

Graves --- Makar
Girard ---- Johnson
Byram ---- Cole
7D
Timmins first AHL callup

Zadorov will get traded for futures (eg. 2nd + 3rd). Timmins is probably more NHL ready than Byram, but Byram isn't allowed to play in the AHL (due to WHL rules), so he'll probably make the team in a sheltered role to start with. Adding two rookie blueliners at the same time would be a risk so that likely means that Timmins starts the season in the AHL.

Once Byram has settled in though I could see Timmins being called up for good, possibly also if there's a long-ish term injury as well. If we want to go with youth then perhaps we'll start phasing Cole out gradually and go with this:

Graves ---- Makar
Girard ----- Timmins
Byram ----- Johnson
Cole

Another alternative is to trade Graves for a top 6 forward (eg. there were rumours of a swap with Montreal for Domi at the deadline), and roll with this:

Girard --- Makar
Byram --- Johnson
Cole ------ Timmins
7D

What we're likely going to be building towards is this pretty much:

Byram --- Makar
Girard --- Timmins
Graves -- Johnson/Helleson

As a minor point I think we'll be signing or acquiring a veteran 7D to replace Barberio who was rumoured to be on his way to Switzerland.

zadorov out. keep the other 7.