That leaves DeBrusk, Senyshyn and Cehlarik as the remaining unsigned RFA's. Cehlarik is overseas and won't be signing. Senyshyn will probably be a similar deal as Kuhlman. We'll see what they do with DeBrusk. He does not have arb rights and they usually like to squeeze and bridge those guys. 2-years, $6.5 ($3.25 AAV) is my wild ass guess.
Anyways, the shift to getting RFA's done may be a signal they're "work" is done for the offseason. Grz's arb hearing was supposed to be today so there was a pressure point to get something done with him, so maybe they're still shopping around somewhat, but feels like they're done. Krug out, Smith in, hope for the best with the kids on D. I think this is where we stand today:
Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak
DeBrusk - Krejci - Kase
Bjork - Coyle - Smith
Ritchie - Kuraly - Wagner
Lindholm, McKegg
Grzelyck - McAvoy
Moore - Carlo
Zboril - Clifton
Vaakanainen, Kampfer (?), Miller
Rask
Halak
They are banking on a lot of internal improvement which is never an ideal strategy. Obviously we know Marchand and Pastrnak will likely be unavailable to start the season. That'll shuffle the forwards around a bit and may open a window for Studnicka and Senyshyn to get a longer look,. Defense is scary. If they are indeed done looking outside, I see no reason not to bring Chara back. At the very least, he's still a good mentor to the kis and someone who can eat up a lot of PK minutes. I put Moore on the 2nd pairing because he was ahead of Zboril and Vaakanainen on the return to play depth chart. That was also in the playoffs which is do or die so there's some sense in going with a veteran, but maybe in the regular season they'd be more willing to give the kids some rope. I'm sure this will end up being a camp battle. Zboril needs waivers, Vaakanainen is exempt so they could probably start the year with Zboril getting first dibs and see how it goes. Put a question mark with Kampfer, not sure if there will be opt outs for the season.
Smith will help but they need the analytical darlings like him and Kase to turn some of the strong underlying numbers into actual production, particularly with Marchand and Pastrnak out. Someone is going to have to fill the net, otherwise they could be in some trouble. Tampa will be strong, Toronto will be strong, Montreal is better, etc. It could be an uphill climb all year if they get off to a slow start.