How would you afford to pay Guentzel and Sanderson after the year? Better pray the cap goes up quite a bit.

You may have to offer Fischer a little more than that to convince ARZ to not match.

I'm not sure if Ottawa makes this deal. Guentzel being a UFA after next season makes things a little tricky. Ottawa already took a gamble on paying the price for one year of Cat without an extension, but at least they hold his rights. Guentzel is a different story as he can walk after this season if he wishes.

Now, if he came with an extension, that may be a different story, but Ottawa fans would know better than I.

If both players came with an extension then you have something here

They will be actually, as a matter of fact they will have 20 mill in cap in 2025 when they are free agents. Lets say both get 8 mil contracts they still have 4 million left. This is all becauset hey are losing there dead cap

That's a fair return if Ott takes Rutta too. Make room in the cap for a Cat extension. Rutta could then be flipped for something if Ott didn't want to keep him.

Cat has more value than Guentzle, he is younger and if Cat wants 9M so will Guentzle on his next contract, OTT passes

I don't hate this but I feel like they might run into the same issues with Guentzle as they did Cat when it comes to signing him.

Any way to move out Joseph?

Could cap dump him even tho he still has some value just a bad contract. Adding a 4th could get the deal done to move Joseph.