I got so excited to see Jarmo dump salary pre-UFA signing day (Wennberg buyout, Murray & Nutivaara trades).
I was expecting a big signing, but I guess Jarmo was only after Hall, and when he didn't land Hall, he is holding out now for a desperate team to make a value type trade.
Even if the CBJ stands pat, you are correct in the elasticity of supply/demand at this moment in time.
Also, most teams definitely do not want to spend to the cap not knowing when fans will be back filling the arena's again.
Interesting times.

how does COL have -2M in cap space?

After signing Toews, who I can't see taking less than 3.2m ish even on a 2yr bridge considering he's already 26, your at 400k with up to 2.5m in bonus coverage.

thats assuming they hit all the performance bonuses which is very unlikely. Imo its kinda misleading to put them in the 'desperate teams' category just because of potential performance bonuses. With a 22 man roster and Toews signed at 3.5M AAV they will have around 750k in space (depending on which players are the scratches). With their AHL team close by they can always send scratches down to the AHL during home stands to limit extra accrued cap hits, which will be enough to get 850k in space for Makars schedule A bonuses. Plus if there are any injuries they will have some LTIR room to make space for schedule B bonuses if needed. Worst case scenario is that they have performance bonus overages if Makar gets all of his bonuses. Also if Kaut is on the roster I doubt he will hit any bonuses since he would be used in a bottom 6 role anyway