To paraphrase St. Louis, "Wins don't always come on the scoresheet"

The development of Dach is important, especially as a center, I would personally like to see him with Drouin and Gallagher.

Marc The Muscleman Bergevin would have had the cojones to just put JS on line 1.

His record development speaks for itself!

Putting up 0.75 pts/game at any position has got to be his priority. If he plays Center this year and is below 0.5 pts/game the pressure will be enormous.

Monahan's not going to play wing. He will likely be 2C if anywhere

I just dont think any lineup with Drouin is built to last or is reliable. And if this is a rebuild, then I'd rather go with development and work with guys who will be around for more than the 22-23 season. Obviously those guys have to play but I'd put them on the 3rd line or less.

I'd go

Caulfield-Suzuki-Anderson (need some size with those 2)
Dvorak-Dach-Gallagher
Drouin-Monahan-Armia
Hoffman/Pitlick-Evans-Dadanov

guys like hoffman/dandanov/drouin aren;t here for a rebuild and I'd be looking to move them, I'd rather a 4th line of even mid-talent young guys learning...Watched PHI-NYI the other night and while PHI lack top end guys, they have a real good mix of guys like cates, tippett, frost, allison, laczyzinski, foerster, attard, york, zamula fighting for spots, spots that aren;t taken.

If he can handle it, I'm all for it. So far I think Dvorak has shown more, but Monahan only played 1 game. Monahan at 2C means we can expect a 1st for him at the TDL ... Which makes this the best possible outcome.

I thought Dadonov would be a more complete player but between Hoffman, Dadonov, and Drouin throughout camp, Drouin has been the only player who has done any consistent back-checking.

I would rather see Hoffman and Dadonov off the team and play RHP, Ylonen, or Pezzetta but I rarely get what I want in hockey.

Curious... Do you think Monahan could not handle playing wing with those guys or that he would be upset to be moved to the wing?

He's just not very good at wing. He's far better down the middle. At least in Calgary he was, even the last 2 years

Not something you hear often that a Center cannot handle the wing. Not trolling here, genuinely curious, can you elaborate on why?

He just looks really out of place on the wing. Calgary tried him there a couple times and it didn't work well

its not uncommon, Kadri stunk on the wing as well, some players are just more comfortable playing the middle of the ice

Could it have been the injuries though?

I don't really get it. Not saying I don't believe you, but obviously most player's who have played Center have played on the wing throughout their careers. Even if you have defense-first instincts, it still should be easier having less responsibility.

Not saying I don't believe you, but I don't believe it's "common-knowledge" that this is a thing.

didnt say its common knowledge, I said its not uncommon for a C to look worse at the Wing. It does hamper their playing style, especially depending on how a team transitions in the neutral zone. Kadri prefers to drive zone entries, as the avs D or Wingers will break out of their zone with their skating, hitting the C with speed.

If hes the 2nd or 3rd man into the zone and they are not used to set up/position in the offensive zone, it can be quite uncomfortable as its not in their nature. This is just one example of one player.

Nah he just looked really out of place, lost in a way. He's also one of Montreal's better faceoff guys so it would be best to keep him in the middle for that reason. Give him some faster wingers and he will be just fine

While I agree, the fans and media can be detrimental.

Dach is 21, and on a 4 year $3.3M deal, if he puts up 41 points, given his previous high was 26 in 70gp, that's a win.

The purpose of St-louis' comment was, he wants to see players develop, grow, and reach their potential.

Dach scoring 65 points but being terrible defensively isn't a win long term for the team and just satisfies the people who read the boxscore and those who think +/- is a relevant stat to quote.