Under cap

TJ isn't the player he used to be and yes, they're going to need to eat it a little in a trade to get rid of him, but he's still easily good enough to play every night. Burying him and still taking the dead money hit is just bad cap management. The same could be said about McElhinney, why bury him and have dead money, when he's still good enough to be the backup?

Burying it and having him for he end of he year playoff run is better than giving him and a pick away. Then come expansion draft you convince Seattle to bring him home keeping rest of team in tact

They don't have to do either with Kucherov on LTIR. Just play him this season and deal him in the off season.

Yeah but to do that they would have to expose pocket and he can get claim possibly where they don’t have to expose Johnson waivers because he’s already cleared waivers and being on the taxi squad he can practice with the team all the time so that means you’ll have all that practice time his body won’t be physically beat up and when there’s no salary cap in the playoffs Kucherov and Johnson are now all of a sudden coming in completely fresh by like the 10 game mark the amount of salary added would be irrelevant

No, they don't have to expose anyone. The dead money from TJ alone covers Pacquette. Your numbers are off.