Or... you just don't sign Boyle, don't make any of those trades and don't pay Pionk that much. 2.5 - 3 for him or you need to walk away.

Take out the $10.65 from the "new" players and add back in Ehlers' $6M and Perreaults $4.125 and you gain $500K in space and become cap compliant with 20 contracts signed. Add in another $1M that you overpaid Pionk and we have $1.5M in space. Bury Kulikov in the minors and add Chibisov, Letestu and Stanley and you're compliant. Easy, but you can't overpay Pionk or trade our value contract in Ehlers as a cap casualty. You'd need to move Connor or Laine if you were going to go that route.

Why would the jets wanna do the cbj trade...?

That's a very hard pass from buffalo, a permanent AHLer, an aging winger past his prime and a 3rd for a 1st line defenseman that will play on your first power play unit?