Line Combos: Intrigue? Build a lineup poll #17: 3LD

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Welcome to the David Ling memorial edition of the lineup poll.

We've made the switch from forward to defense. This poll includes every blueliner reasonably expected to be available to the team when the season starts. You might note I even added a couple just to keep the poll fleshed out.

Vote for your choice for third pair LD, and the winner will be slotted there and removed from subsequent polls. Sure, there are some nuances such a process doesn't allow for - there will be times when you can't vote for who you'd like at a spot because they've already been slotted somewhere else, or there's a combo you like that gets nixed along the way. You can alter, or not, your subsequent voting accordingly.

Sadly, this projects to have less intrigue even than the forwards.

Forward lines
Alexandre Texier - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Oliver Bjorkstrand
Nick Foligno - Max Domi - Cam Atkinson
Boone Jenner - Mikko Koivu - Emil Bemstrom
Liam Foudy - Riley Nash - Mikhail Grigorenko

"leftover" forwards
Nathan Gerbe
Stefan Matteau
Ryan MacInnis
Eric Robinson
Kevin Stenlund

D pairs
Zach Werenski - Seth Jones
Vladislav Gavrikov - David Savard

Click to read more...

 

[Cowumbus]

Kukan because of his skating ability.

Kind of related:
Gabe Carlsson should be on the Taxi squad, make or break it year for him.

 

[ViD]

You forgot to add MDZ, maybe someone wants to sign him and play 3rd pair

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Kind of related:
Gabe Carlsson should be on the Taxi squad, make or break it year for him.

Agreed.

You forgot to add MDZ, maybe someone wants to sign him and play 3rd pair

Good idea - added

 

[Viqsi]

You forgot to add MDZ, maybe someone wants to sign him and play 3rd pair

Frankly, I think it far more likely that he's auditioning for next season after we lose Kukan to the Kraken. But yeah, he should be a vote option.

 

[koteka]

Frankly, I think it far more likely that he's auditioning for next season after we lose Kukan to the Kraken. But yeah, he should be a vote option.

Or if he isn’t too bad in a 6/7 D roll, we sign him for 21-22 and protect more than 3 D and he meets the 1 exposed defenseman must be under contract for 21-22 and have 40 games the prior season or 70 games the prior 2 seasons requirement. He played 49 games last year, so that probably means he only needs 10-15 games this season with however the prorating works to meet the 70 game requirement.

 

[Viqsi]

Or if he isn’t too bad in a 6/7 D roll, we sign him for 21-22 and protect more than 3 D and he meets the 1 exposed defenseman must be under contract for 21-22 and have 40 games the prior season or 70 games the prior 2 seasons requirement. He played 49 games last year, so that probably means he only needs 10-15 games this season with however the prorating works to meet the 70 game requirement.

I think that comes down to "whom do you prefer to lose - Kukan, or Jenner?"

EDIT: Also, per CapFriendly, MDZ only needs 5 more games.

 

[koteka]

If those are the choices, I don’t see us extending Jenner at what he could get in the open market post COVID in 2022. And I like Jenner for what he has been on this team. I see us extending Kukan. Would anyone outbid us and give him a contract worthy of a 4 D? Probably not.

I don’t know that we don’t protect Jenner and expose Cam (depending on how much he bounces back this season), Nyquist, etc. Does Seattle want to pay for the 2nd half of the contracts of our aging wings? I can’t decide which forward I would pick for our 4th choice to protect, let alone 5th, 6th, and 7th. I wouldn’t be surprised if Seattle picked Robinson if we protect PLD, Domi, Bjork, Boone, Jones, Zach, Gav, Kukan, and Korpi. (Again, if Cam doesn’t revert back to the Cam of old.)

We might also be able to add another two or three years of Savard now at a similar rate to what he makes currently if we give him a NMC, given the uncertainty of COVID. Which I would be willing to do.

In that case I could see us protecting PLD, Domi, Bjork, Jones, Zach, extended Savard, Gav, Kukan, and Korpi. And losing Boone.

I do realize that extending Savard a couple years means we will have an unusually large percentage of our cap money in our defense in 22-23 when Seth and Zach are resigned.

Thanks for that number on MDZ.