IMHO we'd be looking at multiple 6-7M players to fill in the gaps. Even if he didn't get Shaw, DeHaan, and Lehner. You're looking at, say, 6.725M over 2 players. I still don't think that's enough to save the skaters from themselves. The counter-argument to you "Sitting half the games on the bench" is that any skater would end up sitting approximately 1/3 or 1/2 of each game on the bench. Unless the players coming back scored as much as at least Kane or played defense like a prime Keith, you're still looking at about 1/3 to 1/2 of the game when they're not on the ice, and we'd still be stuck with guys like Seabrook being Cullimore-slow, the Kyle Calder-like Toews of early on. Debrincat playing like Rene Borque, Gus playing like Runblad, Koekkoek playing like Kukkinen, Maata playing like Kempny, etc. etc.. There were just too many pieces the in the past few seasons underperforming, and Stan dropped the ball in terms of the succession plan.
You won't get an argument from me if you want to chalk in Lehner as another reason Stan should be shown the door in an aerial-like fashion. But I don't think the season in retrospect was salvageable. There have been far too many passengers requiring top players to take over core roles--and the amount of salary we could have used to sign them was nowhere near enough with respect to the skaters needed.
As for Delia/Subban: As long as neither is guaranteed the backup slot I'm okay with it. Neither has shown thus far the ability to take over the reins. Shitty return for Lehner, maybe...but it does give is a cost-controlled option moving forward with Subban being an RFA.
