Secondary scoring and bulking up

I'll preface this by saying that Logan Stankoven and Gavin White are two significant prospects, and I'm not trying to just hand wave them away like they aren't a part of this deal. I've got questions about how Stankoven will translate at the NHL level, but it's impossible to argue that he isn't one of the most skilled drafted prospects in the league right now. Also, it's impossible for me to be objective about Gavin White as a player, I don't think there's a single prospect in the league who I'm more personally invested in, including any Sens prospects.

That said, I'm gonna primarily focus on the NHL side of the deal, because ultimately any return for DeBrincat has to make sense on the NHL side, not the futures side imo.

Radek Faksa is an awesome defensive specialist, and in a bubble I think Ottawa would LOVE to add a player like him to the bottom six. Unfortunately, I just don't see that money working out, 3.25mil with term just isn't gonna fly for Ottawa when you consider extensions kicking in and leaving money for a goalie.

Mason Marchment is definitely a very interesting option as a DeBrincat replacement. Looking at him from last season, it's a totally different story. Last year he was driving play really well in both ends, and his production was clearly top 6 level. His pretty pedestrian season this year gives me pause to consider that last year might have been a fluke, like a Matt Belesky/David Clarkson type season. Ultimately I think whether or not I'd do the deal for Ottawa comes down to which Marchment you think you're getting.

Maybe the answer is to do the deal, and then hire Andrew Brunette to coach the team (which is who I want anyway). Marchment obviously excelled with him last year.

Prior to creating this post I made a test AGM to make sure that OTT could afford this. They can do it, but they don't have any excess cap space left, talking about an amount below 100k remaining after the trades, and re-signing Pinto with 2,5 mil and Brännström with 1,875M contracts.

OTT cannot afford to take on 2 overpaid 3rd/4th liners

Technically they can, but it's more of a question of whether they should do it.

Is that with a Joseph trade? Because I imagine Ottawa will look to move him if they can. And how much room did that leave for goaltending? Because I don't think it's good enough to just give the gig to Søgaard.