You're correct. You do still have to carry the salary cap space until then, even if the player is gone. So the short-term benefits are not realized. So some level of extensions/restructurings will need to take place. It will be interesting to see who they target since their aren't many young guys with upside unfortunately. Taylor is probably the obvious one. You have decisions to make with guys like Olave and Shaheed potentially as well. Or even a guy like Penning perhaps. It's not a great scenario either way. Doable though.
I tend to think Cam is going to keep playing as well, but we'll see I guess.