Zub is getting north of $4m and probably 4 years +. Tychonick will be cast off.
The rest of your choices seem are good.
Things that remain a question:
-Do they sign Motte and extend Austin Watson? Or does Sokolov, Crookshank and Lodin take their place?
-Is Mads Sogaard ready? (i sure hope so. I like what I have seen)

Looking at this team for the first 6 games... 14-20 in the standings is WISHFUL THINKING, but not in the way a Leafs fan would hope.

A lot of dead money (from buyouts and Murray retention, thanks Toronto) will come off the books in the near future. Then Giroux's 6.5 AAV

Most of the core is already signed, next season will be tight but after that, Sens are in a really great position in terms of salary cap.


Tychonick is a bust
Sogaard will continue to develop in the AHL. They will sign a backup like Hellberg (probably)
Zaitsev will be bought out
Zub will get more around 4.5 AAV
Watson and Holden probably won't be back

Motte has looked very good for the Sens so far, but for that reason I think he probably comes in at a price that Ottawa will not like. And Grieg taking his spot is probably better for overall team development, as I doubt many people disagree with the fact that Grieg has a higher ceiling than Motte. I could totally see a scenario where Watson is not brought back, and one of those guys you mentioned takes his 4th line RW spot. I suppose it's more of a question if you believe that they have higher potential than just the 4th line.

First of all, I'd like to note that Zub getting 4.5 and Zaitsev being bought out only works if Debrincat doesn't re-sign, or if Pinto gets much less then what I signed him for. It's probably best to just outright dump off Zaitsev instead of accruing more dead cap, since like you said they have a lot of it on the books right now. And yes, they will gain space from the Murray retention, and Ryan + Del Zotto expiring, but only by about 3 million. So they will nonetheless have issues having a solidified d core along with two solid goalies.

Why? As of now, cap is supposed to be $86,500,000. You probably just didn't see Bettman's comments

Pinto might get less than 4.5 AAV on a 2 years bridge (why would it be 3 years?), even if he has good stats (see Kyrou and Thomas bridges, for example)



Zaitsev buyout is very interesting because it doesn't cost much in terms of $$$ and everyone knows Ottawa is a money conscious franchise

$833,334 in cost each year
$2,833,334 in cap hit the first year then $833,334

If they can make it work cap wise for the first year, then this move is a no brainer

Regarding the D-core, I don't see the problem...

Chabot has several more years at 8.0
Sanderson has 2 years of ELC left then will probably need a bridge
They will probably extend Zub for 5 years around 4.5 AAV
Brannstrom has 4 years of being "cost controlled", won't be a problem unless he explodes and starts piling up more points

Then you have plenty of solid prospects like JBD, Kleven, Thomson, Hamara and Nordberg (plus a few more to keep track of)

You will see the talk regarding Ottawa's defense later this year, once Sanderson and Brannstrom are a bit more known. It's getting really solid as well.

if cat does not step up; in the goal scoring area, no chance in hell OTT will pay him 9M+