By trading Kulikov, Perrault and not extending bottom 6 players by more than 1.5M when we already have two of Lowry, Little, and Roslovic playing in the bottom 6 making it elite. All of that is fairly conventional cap management wisdom.

You're not accounting for Trouba coming off the books. Losing Trouba as a UFA and gaining a UFA should be fairly lateral. Definitely lose some net cap hit, but not at the level you're suggesting. Also Morrissey getting his long term deal should only actually give him a 3 million dollar raise. As long as we're not overpaying our 3rd pairing or bottom 6, we're not in any danger. We're likely not extending Tanev in the picture I'm painting, but that shouldn't be a problem since Lemieux and Apples are stepping up in a big way.

Would gladly take on Perreault. He's an upgrade to like half of our team...