Beegoalie
Registered User
Moving my thoughts from the Vanek thread.
Fontaine is a perfect example of the type of bottom six player you want to have. Someone just not quite good enough for the top six. I dislike teams that are built with two good scoring lines and two lines full of grinders. That got the Wild absolutely nowhere for many years.
If Coyle keeps playing as well as he did the first two games, no brainer to go with a Vanek-Coyle-Fontaine second line.
When Graovac gets healthy, you have to make a decision to see if he can hang at the NHL level. I would give him a few games at #4 center if Haula continues to do nothing worthwhile. Ideally, I'd move Haula to LW and put Schroeder at RW and see how a fourth line with some skill looks.
Zucker - Koivu - Niederreiter
Parise - Granlund - Pominville
Vanek - Coyle - Fontaine
Haula - Graovac - Schroeder
Looks good to me.
Looks great but that's also the softest 12 forward lineup in the NHL. I don't see how we can play any games without a Carter or even Porter to atleast keep other teams honest.
Yeo has shown it isn't his style and certainly not the Wild's to get into a punching match. But teams like St Louis do throw us around and it gets frustrating. Carter will atleast stick up for teammates. Something Chris Porter needs to do to have a role on this team in my opinion.