This is exactly what the analytic department is saying to Fitzy when regarding trading assets for a goalie, especially one that will eat up a chunk of cap room. I am not in disagreement necessarily with it either. However, the goalies we had though just deflated this team. Not all goals are are equal and it seemed that there were a lot more savable goals from our tendy's. Although, let's be honest the team D stinks and is a major factor as well. Not sure, as this roster is constructed, that the "big fish" goaltenders out there will be enough to right the ship, as this team has gaping holes throughout the lineup. Personally, I would rather have a Jake Allen with an upgraded D and keep Holtz and Mercer.
Let's find a way to deal with Palat, say IR or dump in San Jose/ANH for picks.
D-men that you would need to get more creative with regarding cap space would be Pesci/Hanafin. That creativity could be in moving Hamilton. Tougher to do coming off this season, but maybe Dougie had his fill of area museums and would like to move to another location. You aren't winning anything with him on the roster IMHO, especially when you plan to ice Hughes/Nemec and possibly Casey. If we could get 2 players for nearly his cap hit, that would help this team tremendously. If all else fails, maybe a trade for Erik Gubranson, I am sure he would like out of that mess in CBJ. Let's trade for Gudas, although I bet NJ is on that 16 no trade list. You can send Siegenthaler back in that deal.
Keep Schmid and Daws in A and maybe sign Stoli the Goalie, although not sure what price tag that might come with. The bottom 6 can be tinkered with, but the top 6 needs a shooter. If they could land Victor Olofsson that could be the shooter Jack needs. He has had a down season and a bunch of health bombs, so maybe that leads to discount shopping with him. Maybe Tatar on league minimum for 2 years is better than a Tierney on the 4th line, as long as he has buy in to his role of bottom 6. Another guy i would look at is Nick Foligno. Maybe bring Colin Miller back.
I know a lot of spit ballin' in this post and admittedly I have not looked that closely at our cap situation moving forward. I think we do gain some cap space with the total going up a bit and Schneider's hit finally being gone. With all that said, this team really needs more than tinkering in my opinion and a mini overhaul is needed to make this a playoff threat. (Could this team ever beat Carolina?) Fitzy needs to think outside the box and if the front office just wants a goalie and 1 top 6 forward and leave the rest as is, then this team will be right around where it finished this year.