The rebuild in steps…

STEP1
Continue to let big contracts go, or run out in ‘23.
Monahan is available for picks and expiring deals. We’re even willing to retain salary to “buy” a first round pick, and more.

Dadonov, Drouin, and Byron all leave in the summer.

That’s 20.2M$ off the books this summer.

STEP2
This step depends on the upcoming draft. Winning the lottery speeds up the process of rebuilding. I also believe winning the lottery makes Josh Anderson the bodyguard for Connor Bedard. Bedard isn’t a big body, so having bodies like Xhekaj and Anderson around are valuable.

If the lottery is won, we have 5/6 of our top 2 lines sorted out.
Caufield / Suzuki / Dach
??????? / Bedard / Anderson

I also believe that in the very near future, Heineman / Beck / Roy is our future 3rd line with shut down ability.

If that’s the case, a decision nedds to be made on Slafkovsky. Is he a 2LW capable of playing with Bedard?

If the lottery is won, contracts like Dvorak, Hoffman, and Armia will hinder our ability to add a legit #1 RHD, and a #1 goalie.

STEP3
Building the D corps and #1 goalie

I can picture our blue line looking like this soon:
Guehle / ?????
Matheson / Savard
Xhekaj / Mailloux
Kovacevic

Do you move on from Harris? Or do you move on from Matheson in order to keep the cheaper contract?

All in all, big decisions are coming soon for this team. Cap flexibility is on the horizon.

Even with no deals being made, these contracts are expiring:
Summer ‘23
6.375M Monahan
5.500M Drouin
5.000M Dadonov
3.400M Byron
20.275M total

Summer ‘24
4.500M Hoffman
3.500M Edmundson
1.000M Montembeault
0.833M Alzer buyout
0.763M Wideman
10.596M toal

Summer ´25
4.450M Dvorak
3.850M Allen
3.500M Savard
3.400M Armia
1.700M Evans
0.767M Kovacevic
17.667M total

That’s 48M$ of new blood on this roster over 3 yrs. HUGO will be challenged on who gets the raises, and who gets let go.

Interesting analysis. It's hard to project too far ahead, if anything the last 18 months proved that predicting the future of an NHL franchise can sometimes be voodoo…

As for the priorities for the 2023 draft, I’d argue that elite Ds and Gs take longer to develop, so in the ideal world those should be considered top prorities. Now, given that the top of 2023’s draft class is thin on defense, GMKH should probably go BPA with his first 1st rounder and use his next picks on whoever is available between Hrabal, Bjarnason, Gajan, Pellikka, Reinbacher, Dragicevic, etc. This is, of course, subject to change depending on the final number of picks post-TDL and the lottery results.