That’s an increase of $1M over his hit now, so that’s $1M left from buying out Cheechoo. Let’s say Z Smith has a cap hit of $.5M next year, and sadly, Chum is not re-signed, clearing up another $.625M. That leaves $1.125M and the following RFAs:

Nick Foligno
Peter Regin
Jesse Winchester
Ryan Keller
Martin St. Pierre
Alexandre Picard
Chris Campoli
Brian Lee

Ryan Shannon is also UFA.

So you’ve got potentially nine guys to make offers to and only about a million dollars to do so. At the very least, you want Foligno, Regin, and Winchester back for sure. Even if you let everyone else walk, you still need a body to replace Shannon and one to replace CampoLeeCard. Let’s say it’s Daugavins and Cowen. Shannon’s departure frees another $.6M off of the books. That gives you $1.725M to play with.

Assuming Cowen’s entry level deal is similar to Karlsson’s, that’s a cap hit of $1.09M. That leaves $635K to spread across your three kept RFAs. That’s about a raise of $211K per player. Foligno comes in at just over $1M and the other two at just under. Your total cap space for next year is right around $1M — assuming the cap doesn’t decrease.

That’s not a lot of room to maneuver if someone gets injured. Especially if Murray makes any kind of trade this year. Someone else’s salary has to come off the books. I would prefer it’s Kuba, but that means keeping another RFA or hoping that Weircioch can somehow make the team. Chris Kelly is the easiest player to replace and would provide the greatest cap relief. That makes him in the most likely to be traded in my eyes.

Do they really need the minimal cap space that buying out Cheechoo would give them, immedicately this summer? Why not wait till next year and have all 3.5M to work with? It could be the difference between 2 mediocre signings and a good one.