There's no chance that Archibald or Neal or Chiasson should make the line-up over Kassian; especially because Kassian has been one of McDavid's most consistent winger of the last two years. Amongst all wingers that have been paired with McDavid, Kassian is one of the highest generators.

If this team actually wants to compete every night, they need to play their skilled players over their rough-and-tough goons. Ennis played marvelously with McDavid and is a much better player than Kassian. Maybe Kassian would play over Chiasson you are right. Archibald was low-key Edmonton's 5th best forward last year.

You should watch Kassian, he has great hand and is a very good skater. When he's "on" he's the perfect complimentary winger for McDavid. Kahun or Ennis could play on the left side of McDavid because Nuge - Draisaitl - Yamamoto was the #1 line in the entire league last year, so if you're out to find the perfect lines that's 100% where you start.

One of Ennis/Kahun on the 3rd line with Turris and Puljujarvi seems reasonable. Then likely Neal and Chiasson on the 4th with Khaira or Haas in the middle - maybe Archibald wins some 4RW time from Chiasson, but his impact wasn't great last year so it's hard to put him there right off the hop.

And your D pairings are off: Nurse-Bear is a given for the 1st pairing, after that it's a little hard to foretell but Jones-Larsson played well together when Klefbom was out last year so I could see them starting together. That makes Russell-Barrie your 3rd pairing which seems about right.

I have watched Kassian and the Oilers quite a lot actually. IMO though Ennis is a much better player to have alongside McDavid than Kassian is. I have heard that Kahun will play with Drai, so I figured Nuge would be with McDavid. I agree though that Nuge-Drai-Yama was the best line in hockey last season, I'd like to see them together again. Barrie won't be a 3rd pair D man, he needs top 4 time. Nurse-Bear pairing was good but too many mistakes, that's why I give Nurse and pretty steady guy like Larsson and put Bear with the surprisingly consistent and composed Jones

- Ennis is a LW, Kassian is a RW. It's not an Either/Or situation, as I mentioned above. Ennis is competing with Kahun and Nugent-Hopkins for a top-6 LW spot.
- Probably Kahun will start TC with Draisaitl, but having them together is not a given.
- Barrie needs sheltered / offensive minutes, he can't handle Elite competition. Every NHL coach knows this. Playing bottom pairing doesn't necessarily reflect on his overall minutes.
- Nurse-Larsson was tried and it didn't work. Nurse-Bear worked very well in the second half of the year... 1st pairing is hard and its unreasonable to expect a rookie to excel in those minutes right away. Look at their results from January 1st onwards and you'll see what I mean. Tippett won't split them.

These lines offer the best mix of players, and top-6 mix is the closest you can get to being supported by historical performance and stats:

Kahun/Ennis-McDaddy-Kassian
RNH-Drai-Yamo
Ennis/Kahun-Turris-PoolParty
Neal-JJ-Chaisson/Archie

Nurse-Bear
Jones/Russell-Larson
Russell/Jones-Barrie

I’d prefer to put Jones and Barrie out together in offensive zone starts, and Larson and Russell out for defensive zone starts.

Barrie is your PP quarterback so his even strength minutes/pairings is almost irrelevant as the top PP will get 75% of all penalty time; so his overall TOI will be reflective of top-4 mins. This also allows your best defensemen (Nurse-Bear) to play the most even strength minutes which exactly what you want.

With regards to your top line... Kahun is a better player than Ennis so I suspect Ennis is will pair up with PoolParty on your third line. It works out well as Kahun has the better shot. McDaddy is a puck possession player, and Kassian is your responsible defensive presence and big body in the o-zone allowing McDaddy to control play when he has the puck, and Let’s Kahun use his offensive mindset to position himself for high danger scoring chances. Ennis is also a possession player, so he will pair well with Poolparty who will be the trigger man on the third line. The long term plan here is to have PoolParty turn into a better Partner for McDaddy than Kassian is (PoolParty has similar qualities as Kassian in that he’s defensively responsible, and a big body, albeit doesn’t use his big frame to his advantage and throw himself around yet).

From what I've seen from both Kahun and Ennis. Ennis is the better player. He is better in the D-zone, wins puck battles more often, and uses his skill more effectively. He had 12 goals on Toronto's 4th line in 51 games, also had 33 points on a garbage Ottawa team last year. Kahun is more flashy offensively but isn't as consistent or as smart imo