Oof that’s gonna be tough next year. Girard is gone for sure at that point and after Mack, you’re left with like $18.5M to sign 10-11 guys.

Well if you look at the long-term outlook it's about $24 million in cap space, you figure about 11 of that goes to Mack, and about 8-9 to Byram/Newhook, which leaves you with 5-6 to sign a few bottom 6 guys and a couple bottom pairing d, which shouldn't cost a ton especially cause you're hoping guys like Ranta/Olausson/Foudy can slide into that bottom 6 on ELCs. But if that's not enough you can trade Girard and should get a good return for him with hopefully some cheap talent.