Caleb Jones is a bottom line defensive player at best, he's far far far from a $4.5M player....maybe $1.5M at best.

Kane isn't coming back, i'd be shocked if he wanted to or the organization wanted him back

Hawks will weaponize the cap and take on at least one, if not two or three cap dumps from other teams.

Korchinski is 90% likely to play in the NHL next year.

Caleb Jones gets his one year qualifying offer at best. Kane will not be back, and definitely not at 5x$8m. Like the draft picks for sure!

If I’m chicago I attack this a little differently, possibly put a few loose cannons with bedard, anybody even looks at him funny they are attacking, expensive version bertuzzi, or cheaper way with domi and Lemieux possibly. Got the cap and got the time, so why not find a few guys to ease him into the nhl and hopefully avoid the early concussions that Crosby suffered.

For the $40m OP is offering, I'd think Kane floats the idea.

Maybe, but he was also interview just a week or so ago and asked the question and said it's not in the cards as he wants to compete. At some point, maybe for the term but the money is less of a concern for him is my bet. Example, if he's offered $6M on a 2 year deal to compete for a cup, I bet he takes that over $8M on a 5 year.

Colorado who is missing lots of their picks this year and next should be a target to package and trade up with as it might make sense for both. Problem is the value on this proposal is a little light. #35 & #67 are probably what it would take (a slight overpay on value) to get it done which I would be thrilled to make happen. Identical value to #35 & #67 is #44 & #52 which I would try to offer first. #35 still gives you a high probablity of an impactful player where the later 2nds start to become much longer odds. The reason I would want to avoid using that pick is the same on Avs would incist on it.

The issue is that the Avs are terrible at developing and graduating players to the NHL outside the top 10. They need help right now and would be more likely to use that pick to plug a hole on their current roster rather than make picks that will never play for them or won't be ready for quite some time. Don't get me wrong, it's discouraging as a fan to see how poorly they do at developing and how thin the system is but it truly is what it is at this point so, barring a big organizational shift, they'll probably want to use a premium asset like a 1st to plug a hole at 2C.