they can not afford to sign Maroon and Perron to those deals...

How do you figure that? Short-term, we definitely can. These deals, along with Mac and Lehtera, all come off the books as Lindblom, Patrick, TK, Provorov all need new deals.

Konecny - $4M
Provorov - $7M
Sanheim - $3M
Goalie - $????

.. seems like a lot of space they'd prefer to have open going into those negotiations. Plus, that's without factoring in that it's going to be near impossible to sign those two to those deals. I think players have made it known they'd rather take a discount for long term stability than short term deals. Very few guys sign contracts like that. Thornton is the only one that comes to mind. That's why I disagree that it's the correct route to go not saying you're just wrong it's just pretty unrealistic in my mind. I would love to see some win now moves though haha

Goalie on an ELC??? Hart??? I'm not exactly a PHI fan, but I like the team they're building. If they sign their young studs...they can get Hart some confidence through having better players around him. I think Murray and Vasilevsky are good examples to follow, no?

They aren't going into the season with just Hart though. So we're talking another $2M+ for a backup or starter to split with him. Also, those two teams you mentioned didnt go the expensive UFA signing route to build their teams. They did it through the draft and trading for players with term. So although I agree Hart could play in the NHL sooner if they had a better team I just don't see how these guys help that. Carlson I'd give you and maybe Perron but Maroon isn't going to move the needle and playing with Frost/Konecny doesn't seem like a recipe for success. A PIT move for Philly would be trading for someone like Gaudreau (Kessel). Tampa move would be less subtle like Gallagher (JT Miller). I mean look at Tampa's roster. Their top-10 scorers this season were all organic draft picks, undrafted FAs (Johnson/Gourde), or traded for by using one of their former top draft picks (Drouin/Sergachev). They only signed low key guys like Kunitz, Girardi, etc.