I know it's a bridge deal, but I don't see how Kubalik takes that little money considering he already has 30Gs on the year

Because 1 season isn't enough for him to get big money and he's not arbitration eligible. He will get $3M to $3.5M for a 1 or 2 year deal.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I'm not holding my breath.

Definitely NOT the only method of substantial improvement.
Sell high on Kane & Toews.
Sell low on Seabrook and Keith, or buy them out
Rebuild, restock, & reload. It should't be a long drawn out process.
You have a very good new nucleus of players and a decent goaltender (I'm surprised you let Lehner go over Crawford since there is a 7 year age difference, and their numbers were very similar this year).

CBJ did this on the fly over the course of about 3 years, with a good core of drafted players, cutting loose aging vets...Nash, Tyutin, Hartnell, Johnson & Dubinsky (albeit LTIR for him).
Fear not the soft rebuild. You have assets that people want.
I realize they are all legacies and future hall of famer's.
It is just having the courage to unload them now rather than wait until they weight you down.

Biznezz is Biznezz.
For Keith & Seabrook, buy them a nice office in the Hockey Operations dept or give them a nice coaching, scouting, or color commentating job, retire their numbers.
And they'll be happy.

I legitimately love everything about this comment.

While I agree this would be best for the long run, I think the point of this post was for substantial improvement next year

If we do somehow manage to win lottery this is a great example of how things could be. KD and AL have chemistry from Canada training camps and comps.