Arizona has like 178k in cap room right now. They're not taking Strome.

Some team would take him at that price though, if not Arizona. Its a fair deal

This would be about 9mil in buyout contracts next year with staal, smith spooner and girardi. This puts you in an even worse position

Yeah, I mostly just grabbed them as an example of a team with a spare, mid-to-late round pick that NYR would probably want back in such a trade, but there are a few other teams who could offer similar packages and who are in a better cap position to deal, so it's mostly a placeholder.

I'm not as worried about the cap next year though. For one, the only major signings I'm expecting NYR needing to make are Fast and Kreider (and while I'd like to keep both, NYR could elect to move them now or by the deadline for a return if they decide against signing them). Even if the cap stays where it is this year, with my plan NYR will have $12.5M to-

* Resign Kreider
* Resign Fast
* Resign Georgiev (assuming Shesterkin doesn't unseat him)
* Replace Namestnikov with a replacement-level 3rd or 4th-line player
* Resign Nieves (or replace with a 13th forward UFA)

Worst-case estimate is $4.25M to take care of everyone but Fast and Kreider, leaving $8.25M for those two. Not a great spot because Kreider alone might consume most of that. But this is where going a year into the future helps, because Shattenkirk now only has one year left and should be a more favorable candidate for other teams to take a risk on (while NYR's LHD prospects should be one year further developed and more capable of filling a hole left by moving an experienced defenseman). NYR also have the option to look at their LHD depth and if Shattenkirk isn't the one to move, then maybe Skjei is. Or maybe the cap does inflate some and solves the problem for NYR.

Either way, in '21/'22, the buyout hits drop to $3.5M and can be offset entirely by Kakko, Kravtsov, and Fox outplaying the cap value of their ELCs. Plus, expansion should help guarantee cap inflation that exceeds the buyout penalties NYR are paying by then anyway.