[KevT90]

Yes you can extend scouts on expiring contracts.

On your team's Staff tab you can change the default selection inside the drop-down menu from info to scouting and see how good each scouts are at evaluating ability and potential.

For the budget, I am not sure if the amount fluctuates but there's nothing you can do to control it. However you usually have more than enough budget for staffs.

As for the off-season, since you have to work around a salary cap, it's usually to find a way to maximize your talent with good contracts but it also highly depends on where you stand with the franchise. To push for the cup is a lot about timing and building around certain players. So if you have a great core of star veterans that are at their peak, you'll usually try to sign some star and/or depth players during free agency and/or trade your own draft picks and prospects to acquire well established players who will make a difference immediately.

The other way around, if the team is struggling and your best veterans are aging and declining, trade them for picks and/or prospects and rebuild around those young players until they reach their full potential, then do as said in the above paragraph.

I do take a look at my current cap hit before resigning my players as to prioritize and start predicting next year's lineup. I get an idea of exactly where I will stand with the cap hit for next year (calculate how much I want to spend between contract renewals and UFA signings).

For your prospects, it all depends on your current depth and farm team roster but I will usually sign any 2* ability prospect as they are ready to turn pro and be top players in the farm team. They can help out in time of injuries at the NHL level too and since they are on a 2-way contract and won't be waiver eligible for a while they have no financial impact and are easy to move around.