And do the next year, trying to sign Schultz/Dumo/Sheary with only 11.5 million in space.

Can't keep Fleury after this year.

Well look at it this way:

Fleury is gone by next season. My idea was for him to stick around during the cup run.

Kunitz, Bonino, Cullen, Dumo, Pouliot, Daley, Sheary, Schultz and Murray are all coming off the books. You could even go as far as saying Fehr is gonna find his way out as well.

There will be players in FA that the Pens could snag. But being a cup contender, they will obviously need to keep some of these players.

Keep: Dumo, Sheary, Schultz and Murray
Maybe: Kunitz, Bonino, Pouliot and Daley
Gone: Cullen

Sheary and Murray long-term, Dumo and Schultz 3 years.
Everyone but Pouliot will at max get 2 years. He might get traded.

Getting Murphy only means that one of Daley or Pouliot might be gone, or both. They will have enough cap space to afford these players that I talked about securing.

This is the funniest thing I've seen on this site. "Bribe" um

aha I don't know if you're taking it as a joke (bribe) or being sarcastic but, yeah the teams could "basically" do that.

I'd rather buyout Fleury than give up Sprong for nothing...

Whilst that's true, that only means then that the pens won't be going balls deep in the playoffs. You need a backup to compete in the playoffs and Fleury can do just that. By buying out Fleury, they get no backup and by giving away Sprong it means they can keep both. Now granted you can probably settle for someone not as good as Sprong.

How does buying Fleury out after the season have anything to do with the playoffs?

Umm, the expansion draft (and buying out Fleury) happens after the playoffs, not before.

Also, just FYI, Murray is already resigned for next year and isn't coming off the books.