I think cloning Zetterberg and playing his younger self could be an effective approach.
As far as trades get what you can for the veterans which won't be a lot and keep building through the draft. This team is a big rebuild.

Mantha won't sign for that low.

LTIR Z
Sign RFAs
Bert 5x5.5
Mantha 6x6.5
Fabbri 2x3
Bowey 2x1.05
Ehn 2x850
Sign UFA
Anton Khobudin (I know I butchered the spelling) 3x3
Buyout Nielsen
Bury Abs
Trade for bad contract and asset such as Alex Steen or L Ericsson
Maybe Tyler Johnson
Lines as follows
Bert/Lark/Zadena
TJ/Fabbri/Mantha
Filp/Ras/Helm
Ehn/LGD/Smith

DK/Hronek
Nemeth/Bowey
Cholo/Lindstrom

I don't see why you would buyout Nielsen you save 1.8M first year but costs another 800k+ for another roster player anyways. Save 833k in 2nd year so basically nothing with the replacements cost. Just scratch him, he also had 60% dzone starts and was only -0.4% FF relative to the team which is pretty decent for heavy dzone starts.

Yeah nielson is crazy overpaid but hes defensively responsible. We dont need the cap space no reaaon to buy him out