Assuming you can keep everybody next year with that little cap space... I'd be fine with this move

Bye bye Aho and Pesce

Or the Canes choose not to be dumb and only offer sheet for 1 year.

Not worth it he is super soft.

I don't necessarily think so, depending on what contracts those players are comfortable with. I think if you try and get Pesce/Skjei in at or under $13M, you do Aho at $10.5M longterm, Jarvis at $4.5-5M bridged, Necas at $7M. That's $35.5M worst case, which is exactly to cap for 2024-25 without an increase. We'd lost Teuvo, and we wouldn't have room to sign Drury, Chatfield, Martinook, Noesen, etc.

I'd probably bring in a depth dman instead of Soucy like DeHaan, or have Fensore play if it meant being able to keep a few of those guys. then you would have +/- $3M to add to Slavin's contract the next year, and all this is just a few years out from what is likely a significant cap increase.

It's doable. Maybe a big spend, but your top six is Aho, Svech, Necas, Meier, Jarvis, KK, and you still have Staal, and Barbashev in the wings. We have loads of depth guys to help our bottom 6, and your defense is locked in.

Are we talking about the same Timo Meier?

Why would they risk 2 1sts, a 2nd and a 3rd to only offersheet 1 year? He's a UFA, so if you don't get term on the first contract you risk losing him for nothing. They'd only be able to sign him after Jan 1st of 2024, and if he doesn't want to sign then, he's probably gone.

The price of acquisition is a lot cheaper, and like you said, it walks him to UFA. One way or another, it hurts the Devils, they either keep him one year and renter negotiations, or he tests the market. Or if the Devils don’t match, the Canes get him for a year, which walks him to UFA, so the Canes could choose to sign him long term or if the cap situation isn’t what they need it to be, Meier could be let go.

If you offer sheet for term and the Devils match, you have just done the Devils a favor by doing their negotiations for them.

Okay. New rule. Only one offer sheet per owner, per lifetime.