Joined: Jul. 2019
Posts: 37
Likes: 7
If youre gonna break them up I'd do:
Neal - McDavid - Kassian
Nygard - Draisaitl - Chiasson
Benson - RNH - Gagner/Marody
Granlund - Haas - Archibald
but that requires Benson to be a bonafide top 9 winger that can score, chiasson to be the same player he was last year, Marody to be NHL ready / Gagner able to find his old scoring touch, Nygard to be able to play in the top 6, and Neal to bounce back and somewhat replicate what draisaitl can do with McDavid. More likely the lines are:
Draisaitl - McDavid - Kassian
Neal - RNH - Chiasson
being the top 6 and some combination of
Nygard - Gagner - Archibald
Khaira - Haas - Granlund
being the bottom 6. Jurco or Benson can replace Nygard, Granlund or Khaira, along with Cave or Brodziak, can replace Haas, and Marody can find his way to push out a center or a right winger. Like Holland said, it's legitimately gonna be a battle between around 10-14 players (if you wanna counter Puljujarvi, Gambardella, and Yamamoto) for those bottom 6 spots. And although i said the top 6 will probably be those 6 forwards, I think they will get jumbled a lot as well (Neal playing right with another left winger in, Draisaitl and Nuge swaping places, chiassion and Kassian swapping places, etc.) At least in this top 6, you only have to rely on one of Neal or Chiasson to be able to score. And the bottom 6 is less about rushing offense (Benson/Marody) into the lineup and more about playing the best defensive hockey we can and letting the top 6 carry the team