Quoting: McGruff
No JGP = -$4M
Pasta $11M x 8 = $88Mil
RFA Sway = $3M
HATH = $2MIL or not re-signed_ think: any bottom 6-holes fill w/ $1.5MIL or less (be a ton of them come draft/UFA July 1).
No Talbot. ---- > Bussi (entry level)
In order (approx):
-4M + -250K + -1.75M + -500K + -1.05M = almost $8MIL (Larkin) in about a 30 second effort.
Obviously a sharper pencil would figure this out for real-zee...
Seeing as OP didn't account for the $4.5M in bonus carryover for Bergeron and Krejci, you're going to need a really sharp pencil to find a way to dig up the $8M+ that Larkin will command in UFA.
Take away JGP, add the $4.5M carryover, and Boston has $48K in cap space.
Bridge Swayman at $3M AAV instead of $4.75 = $2.23M in space
Give Pasta $11M AAV instead of $11.25M = $2.48M
Skip Hathaway, replace with $1M player = $3.63M
Skip Talbot($1.05M), re-sign Bussi with modest $25K raise ($850K) = $3.83M
So you're still about $170K short of affording Pageau on a 22 man roster. How does Larkin get anywhere near this team at $8M+?