Those wingers are a great lineup....

Not sure about Poehling/Evans/Pacquette on 3C/4C and worried that the defense is maybe not mobile or offensive enough with Chariot/Savard/Kulak. A bit worried about which Drouin shows up this year

Pretty solid though

Still think 3rd pair RD is TBD
We came no where near covering that spot which was weak last year
We needs someone better then Gustafsson/Merril or Kulak
Or else we arent serious about a playoff run without Weber
Or we're pulling TBL dirty trick and Weber is expected to return (unlikely )


Outside that all these lines make perfect sense and have Chemistry or the ability to create it

PP though you want Toffoli-Drouin together
All but 1 of his multi goal nights last years came with Drouin and his Goal scoring dipped in favor of plamaking when Drouin went down
Toffoli will thrive either way but ask yourself do you want more goals or assists ? Drouin if nothing else makes those around him better goal scorers (even if he cant find the net himself )

TBH its more likely Evans steps up following the Desharnais/Danault model
From 4th line winger to 3rd line Center and beyond lol
Poehling hasnt got the foot speed to play anywhere but 4th unless he got a skating coach like Suzuki did
He's got size and like Armia when he got to MTL he'll be given the chance to use it and play or go to Laval
All that a side he's a great 200ft player just doesnt have the positioning skills to make up for his lack of speed (creates a lot of 2v1 against )

I understand your saying, but from a line perspectiv, iv'ed put evan on the fourth not because, he doesn't deserved more, but because with this lineup i don't see a 4th line more like 1 first - 2 seconde and a third. And because him and Leko-Armia would be an increbile shutdown line.

For Phoeling, ive seen him play last year a couple of game with laval, and is skating was pretty not, not like the one wev'e seen before, + if you give him a sniper in Hoffman and a beast like Gally, man O man im pretty sure he can produce some pretty good number

Yeah, I just dont know what MTL is expecting out of Drouin, if its not physical/its mental. He walked away from a team that went to the cup finals. Hes only played 71 games the past 2 years (38 pts) and hes pretty non physical and one dimensional.

I would add that at 5mil+ and unreliable, its difficult to even put a trade value on him.

The UFA market is bare right now and quite a few teams are capped out. I'm thinking that ANY fixes or improvements will have to be by trade and most of those will require picks/prospects or cheaper players. (So as deep as the team is in picks and wingers, Armia and Lehkonen are prime suspects to be dealt for upgrades elsewhere (RD, 3C))

Context

Danault when we got him 10pts in 51 games -5 averaging 12-13 minutes with 247 faceoff wins and 47.9% win rate
Evans last year 13 points in 47 games +2 averaging 11-12 minutes with 203 faceoff wins and 50.1% win rate

Danault and Evans will earn their bones the same way as a shutdown center from 3rd line
Desharnais , Danault and now Evans will become our 3rd line centers who all will over achieve



Poehling is So slow he makes Eric Staal look fast
Great player in the AHL because its a slow league
Its one of the main reason talented AHL players cant make the jump


I've been watching Poehling since his Sophmore year
If he was just more Physical and Gritty he'd be fine
But he's to much of a Pacioretty lite to be out there until he can learn to Skate
You'll see what i mean assuming he took the off season off again (one thing i dont get about him he's basically the only prospect who does)

Poehling is another case like Armia where he'll reach a cross roads and have to make a decision.
Before MTL Armia wasnt Physical and because of it missed the chance at all his signature breakaways and 2v1 he creates with those hits
Poehling has to decide if he wants to play in the NHL or like Ho-Sang he's to stubborn and will stay in the AHL

Full of Wingers but Drouins the only PP winger who consistently puts up double digit PP numbers
Drouin and Guetzal have the least games played in their drafts top 10 scorer's
Drouin was 1/2 LW available that draft on a team who's LW depth as Palat period.
They had Stamkos, Lecavlier ,Nichuskin and Kucherov but needed wing depth

They should have traded down as its the stigma of top 3 he's living with same as Kotkanemi.
Neither KK or Drouin started their draft year ranked top 10 but had good years projected in a 4th-8th pick range
In both cases the team took the best player at the position they needed ahead of their projected spot

Drouin's lived up to his top 10 Production in his Draft
People will just criticize him because he's not Luigi and not Mario (mckinnon)

KK will always be judged for going before Tkachuk
Drouin will always be judged for going before Seth Jones (to start his draft year was ranked #1 but fell to Mckinnon/Drouins History making year)
Its why teams should trade down more these days like they used to