fabbri, walman, bowey (??? he was a kenny trade), and perlini were not "taking on a big contract reclamation project that you then flip for picks". those guys were reclamation projects we traded assets for that didnt pan out.
sean monahan, patrick laine...habs are using their cap space correctly.
i trust yzerman as much as the next guy, but i dont think he used his cap space as effectively as others are doing. i get the intent behind chairot, copp, etc, but it might have been nice to have taken a couple more guys with big salaries to flip.
hindsight is 20/20, i know.