Barron probably to moose first, then lambert to moose after 9 or less games

"I would love to see another take on Pionk with Morrisey on the top pairing. Pionk is in desperate need of a bounce back season, and I don't think he is going to get that on a line with Dillon. I also feel that DeMelo is the perfect D partner for Heinola on the 3rd pairing."

100% agreed. DeMelo and Morrissey make a good pairing, but the ceiling for Morrissey-Pionk is well above the level of play we can get out of Morrissey-DeMelo, it's our only shot at having a true number one d-pairing. Obviously there's a chance it doesn't work, they don't have chemistry and/or Pionk continues to struggle, but if they did work out it'd be huge and like you said, it opens up DeMelo to be able to help another high ceiling player in Heinola with his steady defensive play. I'd also like to see it tried in that I wasn't overly enthused by the chemistry between Pionk and Dillon last year, I'm not super keen on running that one back.

I do think Samberg will beat out Heinola for the last spot on defense though. Honestly I really don't know how we're going to figure that one out. Stanley seems like a lock for the press box right now, with Heinola being heralded as the guy who deserves a spot and has played well, while Samberg has also looked good but fills a positional need better than Heinola, IMO -- we already have Morrissey, Schmidt and Pionk as offensive defensemen who can run a PP and our defense is pretty small -- another guy who can play on the PK and has some size in Samberg does seem more fitting given our lineup.

Will never have a point producing 3rd line with Lowry at center, he's useless aside from faceoffs and fighting, he's such a stonehands, he drags down his linemates.

Barron should be playing center with the Moose.

This narrative about Pionk needing to rebound is so overblown, he was fine last season until someone dropped their knee on his head ffs.

Dillon/Pionk was great, hopefully they're together again this season.

Only thing great about the Dillon/Pionk pair last year was the goaltending they got. This is so incredibly easy to look up. Jets gave up more shots and scoring chances when their were on the ice than when the were on the bench. If that's your view of great... we see things much different.

I do think Pionk was fine last year, but if you really want him to bounce back, put Heinola on his line.

I mean, they were getting tougher competition, so much of those stats are subjective but whatevs, I know they're the Bible for many.

And yet morrissey and demelo handled tough comp and both positive on shot and scoring chance share. If a player is getting out scoring chanced and out shot while on ice no matter the comp they aren't doing their job well. If your eye test thinks they are... yeah your eye test could be wrong. Also every nhl coaching staff use stats as part of job. Their use stats to well see what happened and than use video to try to correct it. Its an important tool for the pros.

So to your eye the Dillon/Pionk pair was bad and the Morrissey/DeMelo pair was good?

Yes. But i have been a big fan of Demelo's and his very smart quiet game since his time with the Sens. Demelo is so smart and makes the game so much easier for his partner. But hes not fast, big or flashy hes just good. That pair was good at limiting shots and scoring chances which is what you want your defense to do.