While I don’t mind the signings, long term it doesn’t make sense as they need to sign Barzal and Wahlstrom plus a backup goalie the following year.

where's shane wright?

Varlamov is expiring, and I think the next trade candidate will be josh Bailey. That frees up $10M in cap space, and if they get a replacement for Bailey in a potential trade, that’s that position covered. Then they need a backup, shouldn’t cost too much, ideally $2-3M, then wahlstrom will likely fetch $2.5-3M on a three year bridge deal, something like that, and barzal will likely get a $1.5M - maybe $2M raise. And also the cap is increasing to likely $83.5M. I think they’ll be fine if they do this.

By then, Bailey will have 1 year left plus some sort of NTC. I don't see them trading their longest tenured player for 1 year. A backup goalie will cost them about 2M. Also the following year has guys like Sorokin and Beauvillier as UFA's. It just doesn't make sense financially for them. Lou is mastermind for the cap so he will find somehow to manipulate it.