Zucker - Koivu - Granlund
Nino - Staal - Ennis
Parise - Eriksson Ek - Coyle
Foligno - Cullen - Stewart
Coyle jumps up a line if Ennis falters, Cullen jumps up if Eriksson Ek falters.
Was about to post this, but it was already there.
No reason to break up the Sugar Finns. Nino - Staal - Ennis could work very well, and as you said, pop Coyle up a line if it doesn't.
Prof. Oak could really benefit from playing in a line with two guys who don't exactly lack in work ethic. Parise still got the effort and potential to score 20G with 3rd line minutes (realistically). Coyle is a beast, and primed for that breakout. Both are good defensively, too, meaning this has all the
potential to be an elite shutdown line that can score. Yes, hockey is not played on paper. I know.
That 4th line is basically rest of the guys. Cullen used to play on an island, but that might not be a bad thing in this case. His experience and ability to score those clutch goals could combine well with the young, budding PWF in Foligno as well as Stewart's... Stewie-ness. It's not an ideal line by any means, but for a 4th line it looks damn good.
I'm curious about who will surprise in the training camp. What if Kunin's lights out? Will he receive a roster spot, and if so, who will he replace? How about guys like Kyle Rau, Cal O'Reilly and Landon Ferraro? They should all compete for those 4th line spots as well. The preliminary roster looks set, but anything can still happen before the puck drops for real, with points on the line.
At least our depth looks good. And that's never a bad thing. It's a long season, injuries will happen and so will an inevitable "disease you thought society already got rid of" -epidemic. My money's on scurvy. Eat those vitamins, kids.
The D will most likely stay similar in terms of our top-4:
Suter - Spurgeon
Brodin - Dumba
3rd pairing is still open, and we will most likely see a lot of shuffling around there. My money's on Olofsson - Reilly with Quincey as the 7th man. But Murphy has solid potential and could turn things around - if he does, look out. Soucy is the potential dark horse there.
Dubnyk will obviously continue as the #1 guy. Stalock is my bet for #2, but it wouldn't be the first time Wild has turned a goalie's career around, so Svedberg might surprise. He's getting up there with age though (27).