Can't afford to let Nuke walk, we need him. Also, we should sign Lehky for longer.

That's a lot of money for Trocheck. Maybe he gets that much but that's more than I'd be comfortable giving.

I think Colin Miller gets more money and AAV.

Kuemper probably gets more too especially if Avs win the cup which they have a decent chance of doing.

Would be tough to give mackinnon the $12M he’s going to get the following year.

Yep; definitely should prioritize Nuke over Bura and get Lehky for another year or two

I don't think so in this scenario. Even if he gets $12M, the cap will go up another $1M at least and they really would only have to give Byram and Newhook bridge deals. Now, I'd rather have Nuke than Bura but his hit should be around the same but I think Kuemper will be a little more expensive.

Agree with much of what has already been said but I'll add:

I'm not sure Lehkonen is really a 2nd line player so I'm thinking maybe they would rather move Newhook to 2C then find an inexpensive 3C like Janmark so they can find a scoring wing that isn't too expensive. It starts to get tricky after next year so they have to be very careful about how they allot their money.

I’m just not going to acknowledge the validity of these weird nicknames, but anyway.

So about 21 million in cap. Erase 12 for mackinnon. Byram and Newhook could take up the 8 on their own potentially. Then compher needs a new deal. Probably a raise because thats just the way it seems to work, but maybe it stays the same. Then three scratches. Then a replacement for Johnson.

Just doesn’t work.

These are the nicknames Avs fans use for those players - they're perfectly cromulent

It's more like $22.5 M in cap and it's not a foregone conclusion he'll ask for $12M. I don't think the Avs will be re-signing Compher but if they do, it won't be for what he is currently making. And they can always trade Girard to make room. It's not at all outside the realm of possibility to make something like this work.

Trading girard would be a massive mistake.

I agree a Girard trade would be tough to stomach but the Avs are going to have to start making decisions soon. They don't have a lot of internal options up front and don't have a lot of valuable trade chips available who aren't current roster players. Girard may end up being a trade chip they can use to bolster in other areas of need. I wouldn't count on that happening soon but it is a possibility. The other option is to trade Toews after next season for a massive haul and keep Girard. That, too, would be tough but something has to give at some point.