This team isn't better than Tampa, it's not better than Toronto, it's probably not better than Florida, and it's probably not better than Boston. That leaves you in the wild card race, and the Metropolitan is stupidly strong... I just can't see this team making it without some significant upgrades in it's depth.

The habs main assets is its depth, which is reflected above. They dont have the depth that Tampa had in this past playoffs but tampa has a lot of pieces that will be moving around before next season so we will have to wait and see what they look like. Their main issue, as it has been for about a decade now, is not having a true offensive star that can take over a game. Suzuki is slowly developing into that and may get there one day but certainly wont be in the short term, Eichel brings that next level star and would give them two solid scoring lines to go along with two good defensive lines that have some offensive upside. The only head scratcher here is giving petry away for a 2nd round pick, i'm sure if there were interested in moving him they would get a better return. This team on paper would be very competitive, even in the stacked atlantic.

That's not getting you Jack Eichel slick, And Dougie Hamilton gets closer to 8 x $9,000,000 and it's a 23 man roster not a 20 man roster so technically you're over the cap.

It's still the 5th best team in the atlantic, and probably the 11th best team in the East.
Eichel likely will miss half of next season when he gets the surgery he's after, so that glaring hole is still there. Suzuki looks like he'll be a fine 2C, but nothing more. Their bottom 6 is a major issue. Byron was on waivers because he was having a tragic year. Having him still in the top 9 makes it hard to back this team to make it. Tampa will 100% be in there. Kucherov has a broken rib so he'll likely be on LTIR all of next season after needing rib surgery. I don't know if that's a real thing, I'm just bitter.

IF your 3rd line consists of both Lehky AND Byron you have lost your depth up front. Not to mention you are 2.5 Mil over the cap

Updated version

Weber LTIR