I like all of this! I agree with the sink or swim statements. I might even be willing to give Perlini, Hirose, and Ehn one more year for the sinking or swimming. I don't really like Perlini or Ehn, but I'm willing to give them one more year. I think we could also maybe just give a 5th/6th in the JJ trade.

Edit: Also just saw that you threw Byfield on 3rd line with Simmonds and Erne. I'd rather him develop in the OHL before playing him with them. In my eyes either play him with Mantha/Zadina and fabbri or send him down to the O

300k retention and drop the fourth to a fifth or sixth

I like Ehn, he should be a serviceable 4th liner for years to come, esp if he improves his faceoffs. As far as Perlini goes; he really did nothing for the team, he’ll only take away a spot from a prospect

Pittsburgh coaches actually like Johnson. Plus, no reason to trade him if they need to retain.

If they do trade him, the "worst" that it would be is something like Johnson + 4th for a 7th, no retention.

who's gonna take JJ for 3 years no salary retained ?

The problem is if you draft second overall, I would bet that Yzerman takes Stutzle, which isn’t horrible either.

Who was going to take Gudbranson. Remember all of CF said it takes a 1st to move him.
Oh and it costs to move Maatta too right?

Lets be honest here. They might not move him in the off season. That is a real possibility.
But don't think for one moment when teams have to deal with injury, they aren't looking.
And he's basically a 1 year deal. Who ever gets him should be looking at buying him out the next year. It's the same cost as playing him.
So that ends the 3 year argument. It's like paying for 2.

One thing I do know, is they aren't going to retain. They just don't do that beyond 1 year.

Gudbranson doesn't had a lot of terms remaining … people were trading 2nd rd pick for Maata lol Might not cost a lot to move him but I think he will cost something

He had 1 more year at 4 million. I mean, it wasn't nothing. Given it wasn't 3 years. But JJ is really 1 year plus the cost of buyout, roughly 1 year. So it's very similar to the Gudbranson trade in the fact that it's roughly a 2 year deal. Gudbranson is actually more actual money, less against the cap though.

Pittsburgh, because, like I said, the coaches actually like him.