If the Lighning trade Drouin it will be for a top 3 d-man like a Jake Muzzin or Jonus Brodin. On top of that if he signs for 4 years at 4.2M the Lightning would sign him for that in a hurry.

Overpay for Grub. Why don't you just pay Vegas to get him? Trade them Shinkaruk and a pick or two or maybe trade them Bennett straight up once they select him instead of giving WSH help haha. Also, Shatty is bad.

I left a lot of room (2.8M in cap) to offer a larger contract to Drouin. If it comes down to it and CGY does like they did with Hamilton and threatens to submit an offer sheet, TB likely wouldn't be able to match, since they still need to re-sign Johnson, Palat, up to 6 others to fill out the roster, all while saving room for Kucherov's upcoming extension. I'm thinking it's more likely that Drouin is traded for futures and picks, because trading him for a top-3 d-man who will be making top-3 money is going to further cloud their cap troubles.

Shatty is going to sign with either leafs, rangers, isles, sabres, or wings. Not the flames.

McDonald is CGY's 4th best goalie prospect right now and is really just taking away playing time from their other prospects, so from Calgary's POV, it ends up being a 2nd and a 4th for Grubauer (RFA) and Shattenkirk (UFA). Seems pretty fair to me. Trading Bennett straight up for Grubauer is laughable.

The Lightning's cap situation is no where near as dire as you are making it. They can trade Drouin for a top 3 dman and still have no problem with cap, resign Palat and Johnson for max 6M dollar deals. The Bolts don't need futures our farm is stocked they need a top 3 dman to make another run.