Bozak would be a good Byron replacement for the time being, but he should absolutely not be your 2C.

With Byron and Danult off our PK
Paquette should cycle in

Factoring out his time in OTT there's no Center on our team better on the PK
He's about 75-80% as effective as Danault was in MTL
Everyone else is about 20-30% as effective Danault was but only Byron was on his level

Simple way to rank it

Byron = best
Armia /Paquette = next best
Evans/Suzuki = potential to be more but still developing
Toffoli= pitches in as part of the 3rd PK unit

Well then 3C. The 2nd and 3rd lines will get around the same ice time. Is he not a valuable 3C anymore?

Are you basing this on numbers, or the eye test? Because the way I see Montréal’s PK from last year (based purely on what I’d saw watching games):

1. Armia
2. Danault/Lehkonen
3. Byron
4. Evans/Suzuki/Toffoli (Evans gets more time because he’s good at faceoffs)

So for this team, if they’re changing on the fly Suzuki comes out on the 2nd unit, but on the whistle they put out Bozak. (He was 56.8% on faceoffs last year)

i'm basing it off Volume
Number of Minutes played , shots taken/blocked ,Attempts and misses
Factored in Paquette and Danaults short handed offensive production

And their numbers are closer then anyone beyond Byron
Armia is close but doesnt have the volume Danault got here or Paquette got in TBL

Armia's numbers to are playing 2nd PK
If he played 1st PK like Byron he'd have more Ice time and better stats
Its nothing personal and Armia's the future but today its Byron leading the PK still
Its why we've kept him all these years even signing him with term after injuries started piling up
Danault,Lehkonen, Armia , ext are all his Protege's he molded just like Armia will likely resume his role and do very soon.

I'm not saying they're not capable of proving me wrong but the numbers are the numbers
When Lehkonen was top PK unit we were bottom of the NHL that's just fact
When he was removed forcing us to use 3 units instead of 2 to absorb the minutes he'd have played
We became top in the NHL and i dont see Burrows changing that after having such success so early on in his career as a Assistant Coach in the NHL

Lastly take Evans profile and compare it to Danaults at his age
You'll see a lot of similarities there
Then factor in they have the same mentor in place on special teams where Danault earned his shot at Special Teams Play
He's getting played because he's not only smart and responsible but also has leadership qualities and absorbs everything like a sponge.

https://twitter.com/i/status/976961722752880640

I dont think the Acquired Pacquette before making Lehkonen a priority by mistake

Paquette was one of the best PK Center options
I'd say Bozak , Paquette, or Zajac were the best 3 options for MTL in that respect