This is what it would look like next year only signing RFA's.
Something has to give here, we have too many guys to play NHL minutes next year. An abundance of cap space that is abnormal for this team, and even more coming off the books the next year.
The questions to me become: what is Steen, Sobotka, berglund's value? Can we move 1or2 of them, plus for upgrades? How do we attack free agency, when we already have to many players?
Looking at the offense:
Schwartzy, Schenn, Tarasenko. Not going anywhere.
Tage, Thomas, Kostin, Kyrou. Shouldn't go anywhere.
(7 of your top 9 moving forward)
Jaskin, sundquvist, soshnikov. As your 12,13,&14.
So we have Fabbri, Bergy, Sobo, Steener, Barby, sanford, and Blais to fill the 8,9,10,11 spots. Leaving 3 good players in limbo as to where they fit in the teams future.
Looking at the Defense is a bit easier:
Edmundson Pietrangelo
Dunn Parayko
Are locks moving forward. Bortuzzo (your 6/7) has no need to be moved. Which leaves jbow, Gunn, Walman, Schmaltz left to fill 2 spots. Do we want to pay jbow 5.4 to be a #5? Are Walman or Schmaltz ready to be an everyday player?
And finally goaltending:
Allen is the guy, like it or not. (At least right now)
Both Husso and Binnington are probably ready to be NHL back ups. Husso is looking like a future starter. And Binnington being a fringe guy, maybe Elliot/Hutton like?
But Binnington would have to be resigned and pass waivers to play in the AHL. Husso is still on EL contract.
Scary thing with Allen's consistency issues, is it safe to not have a 1B type back up?
All in all, this team has the pieces and many different options to make itself better. You could build a 5+ year powerhouse with a few well planned moves.
I think something has to give now. I mean with Soshnikov in the mix they basically have a million players rotating on the 3rd and 4th lines. They already lost Paajarvi to waivers this year so I'm assuming that they don't want to keep giving up players for nothing. Jeremy Rutherford mentioned on twitter that both Berglund and Sobotka have came up in trade talks so I wouldn't be surprised if one of either them or Jaskin is on the way out. Armstrong also mentioned today that he expects there to be a lot of movement on deadline day so I can totally see Soshnikov as coming in to replace one of those players. I also have a wierd feeling that Armstrong has some crazy surprise trade up his sleeve this year that no one has caught onto yet. Really good insight on this post btw