My big dream remains Tomas Hertl. If we look at the David Savard trade from last year, it's possible to acquire players for 25% of their salary cap. That's the "all in" move. That's the player that lets us build a dominant 3rd line - and having a 3rd line that can go out and drive play/dominate the opposition has proven in recent years to be a massive difference maker for the Championship winning teams.
https://twitter.com/user/status/1380990663991422977
With that in mind, and when we look at Ryan Pike's cap breakdown:
https://twitter.com/user/status/1499393551351746568
I present to you the 2022 Stanley Cup Champions:
Gaudreau - Lindholm - Tkachuk
Mangiapane - Backlund - Coleman
Dube - Hertl - Tofolli
Lucic - Monahan - Lewis
Hanifin - Andersson
Kylington - Tanev
Zadorov - Gudbranson
Markstrom
Vladar
and the trade for Hertl:
To SJ: 2023 1st round pick, 2022 2nd round pick (50% retained)
To CBJ: 2023 3rd round pick (additional 50% retention, so retaining a further 25% of the full cap-hit)
To CGY: Tomas Hertl at $1.406M