Leaving MacKinnon off seems crazy. $6.3M is very affordable, and he's a much better option than the $5M given to Marchessault or Reilly.
Also, instead of your goalies, I would look at Matt Murray and Aaron Dell. Combined $5.65M.
I wanted to pick two goalies with low cap hits and trust that the skaters ahead of them would limit shots and score buckets of goals. But the fact that your two goalies are only $1M more and fit under the cap makes a ton of sense.
still think crosby is a better option than mcdavid, and you're saving 3.5 million or so.
It's difficult to argue with that. Dropping McDavid and DeBrusk for Crosby and Couturier almost certainly makes this team better, and by a fairly large margin.