I was having a hard time visualizing our lines for next season, so I decided to write things down and actually try to build our line-up.
Some primary notes on where I went with this thought experiment:
-Berggren, Edvinsson, and Johansson are all included based on Steve's recent presser.
-this team is cap compliant despite some obvious flaws like carrying 24 players and also choosing to waive Campbell. I assumed $17mil for Mo and Raymond combined on their extensions.
-the arrows between our L1 and L2 wingers signifies that we can look for optimal combinations amongst those 4 players, although I would personally keep the Cat and Kane together and open the season with Tarasenko playing with Raymond.
-I have Kasper making the opening night roster. I believe he can operate on a 3rd line as a 2-way centre to start, and if his development progresses he can challenge for the second line centre job.
-Having Ed penned in on the top pairing scares me too.
-Copp on the 3rd line means an overpay for a 4C but he would be a great fit for these minutes/role.
-the out category is essentially scratches. In case of injury, Copp can move up the line-up as a centre or winger and have Veleno fill 4C. 1 player needs to go from this category, and while Holl is the player I'd most like to see go, I don't think cutting/waiving/buying out his contract makes much sense financially and husso is probably the most likely candidate to get the axe here. This issue is solved by having Kasper in the minors and moving our other centres up the line-up, but I would be sad.
Please feel free to just destroy this theoretical roster, I did it because I needed clarity and conversation will do a better job of that than me messing around on a note-pad.
TLDR: we have one of the teams of all time
14 comments
Formatting is a mess, my apologies for being on mobile.
Veleno is on the team next season and will be our fourth line center. It really seems like Fester likes him a lot.
This team is missing a RH defenseman to put with Ed on the second pairing and maybe one more forward for the third line.
Not happy with Chiarot on the first pairing but he is our best choice right now.
I like that fourth line.
I hope kasper or danielson makes the line up but kasper especially, it’s been long enough id say. But I’ll wait until preseason to get my hopes up
That current second line you have listed is something we already tried last year and it’s when Cat went cold. We have to stick with Cat-Larkin-Raymond to start at a minimum and give them a chance to build off the end of last year where they looked dynamite. We could have a true consistent 1st line if they build off last year. I get Tarasenko and Kane on a second line is slow but maybe that’s where Kasper or Danielson comes in and bumps Tarasenko down to the 3rd or they split time. Will be interesting to see.
I have no opinion what the lines should be but Raymond needs to be wearing an A next season.
I like the forwards, that’s pretty much what I’m predicting except I had Ras playing with Fischer and Copp in 4th because that allows the shutdown line some offensive looks and it worked well last season. Also Motte is on the bench and Veleno starts because in the third because of the Ras swap but I think your lines are the more realistic one.
I also like the D but I’m afraid Lalonde is still going to overvalue Petry and play him on 2nd pair. This leaves either Johansson or Määttä out, former hurting the future of Wings and latter just being a plain mistake. But if given free reign and not worrying about most likely I think it looks neat. I think that Ed might benefit from playing in the 2nd pair as to not face the toughest matchups all the time but then again when rearranged like that the 2nd pair could shoulder some of the purely defensive shifts so it wouldn’t, probably, be too bad. 3rd pair, not knowing too much about Johansson’s play, effective and smart playing D pair, capable of moving the puck and generally playing mistake free, solid hockey.
On the goalie side I seem to be the only guy here still thinking that Husso has the highest ceiling of the three and such should not be just sacked. That said the team is on the cusp of playoffs, we can’t afford inconsistent play from our starter as a good start to the season is important. Thus I’d start Talbot, have Husso on backup and have Lyon starting as 3rd. I would like to see all of them to get their chance and acquire enough games so that come TDL we can choose to sell the one that makes to most sense. Last season Wings carried 3 goalies and while not optimal I don’t think it hurt Wings, quite the opposite as Husso got injured. Of course, if there is a trade available for top 4 D or top 6 center, that changes things, as cap is an issue but other than that I think carrying 3 is fine, we have the roster filled and cap space for it.
And yea, Holl and Campbell gets waived. There is no world where Holl would be the right man to put into play given the prospects Wings have, he should never see ice time. Campbell is a loss, kind of, if someone claims him but then again that’s just +/-=, nothing lost, nothing gained. I’d like to see him make it through and Wings selling him later down the line but it might be that no team is interested and he just filters through. We’ll see.
Kasper won’t be on next season unless there’s an injury because we would be at 24 roster players and we can only have 23.
Otherwise pretty good guesstimate!
What’s going on with you listing Talbot as the starter? That’s the most head scratching part of this drunkenly scribbled out lineup.
Janky line up but naturally not your fault
Edvy, kasper that high up very, very unlikely
D going from the AHL to big NHL minutes almost unheard of, seems very likely edvinsson will start off like broberg
Also that’s like 10M$ in healthy scratches
You can’t just keep players with sizable contracts as fill ins, they have significant expectations and needs for their careers and will demand a trade or at worst to be waived and bought out so they can sign somewhere else, naturally
This is very likely a 35 win team, fwiw
Gus, Chairot pairing scares the crap out of me.
While I have no problem with your lines, the one thing it tells me is that the GM screwed the pooch when 7/1 hit. If anything, I feel bad for Kaner because I am sure Yzerman promised him a significantly better lineup. No defensive help to speak of, plus a thousand goalkeepers that don’t equal one Osgood.
I approve of this lineup.