Just looking at the salary floor situation, it's hard to look and not think that Garth is going to do something before the season or early in the season to help us with our cap floor situation. Right now, without Bailey signed, with Nino on the team, and carrying 8 d-men/3goalies, we are barely $760k above the floor. So in essence, any contract given to Bailey(or not) should keep us above the cap floor. 

Garth also said early in free agency that he was trying to acquire a top 4 d-man, and I see no reason why he still wouldn't be trying. Last year, we started the season a couple million above the floor, which is the smart thing to do for trade/promotion-demotion reasons, and was actually very helpful in allowing us to keep Nino in the minors and make the Roloson/Wiz trades for picks/players.

So now on to the question:

Do you think Garth will add another player somehow to keep us enough above the cap to have flexibility involving trades or ahl/nhl demotions throughout the season/before the season?

What does this mean, right now this means with our cap situation:

-Nino MUST(or Strome if signed) be on the team come opening day for us to be above the salary floor. Whether NHL ready or not(which is debatable right now), which is not something you like to hear. If he knows he doesn't have to earn his spot, then he "could" relax too much and not have the pressure he "should" to be all he can be. But that last part is guessing. 

-Higher cap players(usually around $2mil+) can't be moved off the nhl roster through trade or demotion if they deserve so. Eaton likely can't be traded away for a 3rd round pick easy if we are doing bad and he's playing good, Eaton can't be demoted to the AHL if he plays horrible after surgery because of his salary, DP can't be ahled if he plays horribly, DP can't be bought out(and I advise against it) if need be, and Comeau/Rolston can't be traded for (example) anything with a salary similar to their's. It could possibly even mean that ahl players that deserve a promotion have trouble being promoted due to low salary: Donovan/Katic/Reese/Klementyev could all have trouble being brought to the nhl level unless their demotee's have a similar salary to their's(barring injuries for LTIR).

But if Garth adds more cap/another higher payroll player this could mean that all the possible negatives above could be reversed or possible now. Ideally, a GM would like that flexibility for the reasons stated above and more.

So in essence, there are a number of possible problems occuring if we enter or accumulate 10gms before Garth adds salary to the team. Is it necessary for Garth to add salary to the team? Not at all, we are over the cap. But could it create a number of difficulties/issues if Garth doesn't add more salary to the team? Yes. And that is the reason I think there is a good chance Garth is going to add some salary to this team before 10gms of the season pass.

Opinions/comments?