I'm curious as to why you added Hamonic at $3.5M while you have EJ as 7th D at $6M. Seems wasteful and you're going to need that money in 2023-2024.

As for the long-term outlook, you'd have to hope for a significant increase in the cap by the time Mac comes up for his deal because you only have $31MM to sign 12 players and Mac is going to eat up around 35-38% of that. So you've only got maybe $19M to sign 10 more players that can compete. It can be done since the core is intact but now you're really counting on those young guys coming in and making a big contribution or being able to pick up spare parts that can still be serviceable.

Aside from that, I have serious doubts Hall signs for that cheap for that long and I wouldn't at all be surprised to see Makar sign a bridge that sets him up to make even more than $8.5M.

the big thing is johnsons contract goes straight across to mack. so that gives over 12 mil for mack. There's no huge contracts that year other than him, by that time i'm hoping this barron can make the jump up for another rookie contract in johnsons place.
Hamonic is there pretty much to provide grit when johnson gets his usual injury come playoff time, something i think we missed dearly this year. Plus his contract would be signed the year before this one so he'd be done the same year mack is. So that gives us over 22 mil to fill out the roster after macks contract. considering our 3 of our top 4 would already be signed and our top 6 is signed that should be enough to fill out the roster with ELC's and role player contracts

Yes, you definitely would be in the position of having to count on the young guys coming in and being capable of playing significant roles. That's really the only way it would work.

i don't think you're drafting right if you can't rely on players eventually coming onto the team....

Yeah, you're either messing up the drafting or the development. But I can see them filtering in the guys in the system over the next 3-5 years as they shed older contracts. They are currently missing any high-end wingers but that can always change, especially if they use their defensive depth the right way.