Ascension

The only drawback to this is that I think you wind up losing Beau after 2022-23 - if you give Pasta $10M AAV I think you have to come close to that with Barzal's extension (personally I'd just match the numbers) and then you'd only have $6.1M for 2023-24 with the following guys signed:

Lee-Barzal-Pasta
Beau-Nelson-Palmieri
Martin-JGP-Clutterbuck
Johnston-Cizikas

Pelech-Pulock
Reilly-Dobson
Salo

Sorokin

Need to replace Varly & Mayfield, and get some 3rd line guys to go with JGP. I think you can hope Holmstrom is ready for RW3, but that keeps you at about $5.2M for a backup goalie, an RD3, and two more depth guys. Not impossible but a tough road to go without relying on a ton of untested guys or the Andy Greenes of summer 2023.

Would be tough, but to get and lock up Pastrnak, it's a road worth going down. FO has to find the cheap talent that the true contenders seem to dig up every year instead of relying on the same old guys. If the cap goes up another million, you got about $2 million apiece for a D and BUG, then ELCs and league min guys for depth. Not ideal, but doable

Not enough especially since the Bruins can keep him.

Sure they can keep him, but does Pastrnak want to stay is the question

No reason to doubt about this right now.