Roster projection

Overpayment for Gus. I think Minnesota would rather take it to arbitration and get him at $3-3.5M. Also, this is only a 20 man roster with less than $700k space. That’s not reasonable roster management.

Reasonable roster management? They have $14M in dead cap. They're going to be running a minimal roster all season

I did not realize how brutal those buyouts were for Parise and Suter... I was really hoping the Pens hired Billy G over Hextall (even before the mess he made) so i'm definitely rooting for him. Will be interesting to see what he can do when he gets an extra $13M in two seasons.

You cannot run a 20 man roster. It’s hard to run even a 21 man roster. If Gus gets $3.5 and Addison gets $1.2, that saves $1.3M. That, plus the $700k from this, allows Rossi+Walker to be regular NHL players. Minnesota then has a 22 man roster.

Not to nitpick your lineup, but Eriksson Ek is going to be with Boldy/Johansson or Kaprizov/Zucc. Stepan wont play for Minnesota. Rossi will be an NHLer this season. Hartman will likely go back to wing.

Kap-Ek-Zucc
Boldy-Rossi-Johansson
Foligno-Gaudreau-Hartman
Duhaime-Dewar-Maroon
(Petan)

Or

Kap-Hartman-Zucc
Boldy-Ek-Johansson
Walker-Rossi-Gaudreau
Foligno-Dewar-Maroon
(Duhaime)

Merrill probably makes it through waivers. CHI definitely wouldn't claim, but it's certainly possible someone does.