1) With the pending Stastny-Jets trade, VGK clear cap space in their push to sign Petro. They failed to get EK65, but succeed this time in their 2nd try at getting a highly-priced all-star defenseman.
2) The Flyers, having missed out on Petro, acquire Burns as Plan B with Niskanen retiring and the cap space made available. An obvious deficiency in their team in the playoffs was offensive production from the point, and losing Niskanen made things even worse, so this move makes sense. They don't give up much, and Braun gets traded to return to SJ and pair up with his defensive-partney-bff Vlasic. While having cap-space now, Flyers leave both Burns and Voracek exposed for SEA to likely select one of them to clear cap-space for the future.
3) Sharks take advantage of TBL's cap problems and offer-sheet Cirelli as the perfect player for Boughner's defensive-style system and a young core piece of the future. TBL bite the bullet and realize they won't be able to match because of their cap problems, and losing Cirelli, as painful as it is, at least gets them a 1st and a 3rd and makes things simpler cap-wise going forward to keep mostly everybody else. They don't match.
4) TOR, having realized that a team can still win a cup with two 10+mil contracts but cannot do so with three, consider a change. Dubas decides a package of a gritty 30-goal scoring Kane, who's still highly effective at an early 29yrs old, along with a young offensively-brilliant player in Labanc is a fair and good enough return for Marner as they get two excellent players who total Marner's cap hit to balance out the roster more. Losing Marner hurts, but Kane brings the physical but still highly skilled edge and element to their lineup they've sorely lacked the last few postseasons. San Jose have that type of player in a young Meier. Labanc also works wonders on TOR's power play, while Marner's defensive brilliance along with highly-skilled play at RW and a young player at that is just what they need to be both competitive now and for the future.
5) Sharks sign key depth forwards Leivo, Fast, and Benning to fill out the roster, as each are the perfect candidates for their roles on this newly constructed team that suddenly just got both better now and younger for the future. Father Patty comes back to join son Mitch and get that all-time most games played in NHL history in teal. Jumbo goes to either TOR or PHI having seen his BFFs Burns and Kane leave, but gets traded to SJ by the TDL once he sees how good this team is for the ultimate final cup run.
Protections:
F: marner meier hertl couture cirelli fast donato
D: vlasic karlsson braun
G: jones
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