2018/2019 Lineup Thread

[The Note in MI]

The sheer variation in lines provided here is pretty crazy. A lot of them I whole heartedly disagree with in concept and form. Many I think are very close to what we are going to see. I anticipate at least one big injury in the top 9 at an early point in the season because that’s just how things work. Therefore without knowing who that person is, we can’t really speculate given the flexibility our available players provides. I feel pretty comfortable saying that down the middle we will have Schenn ROR and Bozak to start though Thomas being a wild card to overtake any one of those positions. Schwartz and Tarasenko are locks at their respective wings. Jaskin given lack of true RW depth and his possession capability probably takes the 4RW spot.

That leaves

Schwartz Schenn -
- ROR Tarasenko
- Bozak -
- - Jaskin

Obviously that’s not a huge reach but similarly there is still a chance much of that is wrong. This isn’t a bad thing to have. It’s going to be very interesting to see how this all shakes out come camp as we have a lot of guys who could make an argument to shed the 4th line grind line and run a more skilled line who is able to provide solid defense.

I will say that talk of a grind and PK 4th line is not the end all be all answer. There aren’t many (perhaps any) teams capable of rolling out as skilled of a fourth line as we may be able to, and you therefore can’t place that mold on our team. And you’d be doing our roster a major injustice to run out a lesser team just to fit roles, IMO.

We have plenty of responsible two way players to fill a PK unit and given the skill throughout the lineup that PK time is ok to distribute to more “star” players because they won’t be required to play 20 min a night now.

 

[The Note in MI]

How about this one:

Maroon - O'Reilly - Fabbri
Steen - Thomas - Tarasenko
Jaskin - Bozak - Perron
Schwartz - Schenn - Barbashev

There’s a difference between placing an anchor with a top “pairing” to run four lines and running four lines. If we are going to “run four lines” it’s not going to be with spreading of players to make four equal lines it will be because depth pushes a top 9 player down to the fourth line.

 

[CitizenSnips]

I have seen a lot of Philly fans talking about Schenn as a winger. I am wondering if he or Schwartz could play off wing and be centered by Bozak and then eventually Thomas. Im just throwing it out there to see what everyone else thinks. Fabbri has to prove it in my eyes before giving him top 6 (or even 9) duties. He could slow his way back in to the lineup and take his time before getting him starts higher up in the lineup. Thomas and Bozak could swap out spots as the season goes along if Thomas improves enough

Maroon - ROR - Tarasenko
Schwartz - Bozak - Schenn
Steen - Thomas - Perron
Jaskin - Barbashev - Fabbri

 

[Reality Czech]

How about this one:

Maroon - O'Reilly - Fabbri
Steen - Thomas - Tarasenko
Jaskin - Bozak - Perron
Schwartz - Schenn - Barbashev

Ok, but you're the one who has to explain to Brayden that he is now our 4th line center after the best season of his career.

 

[stl76]

Perron-O'Reilly-Tarasenko

This would make a good 1st line. Perron can be the RHS to feed Tarasenko (they both like to cut to the middle). Plus, he's more comfortable on the left, is he not?

I think you may be on to something here.

Schwartz - Schenn - Maroon
Perron - ROR - Tarasenko
Steen - Thomas - Bozak (Bozak taking important draws)
Fabbri - Barbashev - Jaskin

Extra: Soshnikov, Thorburn

Dear lord that looks nice.

 

[Meatball]

I think you may be on to something here.

Schwartz - Schenn - Maroon
Perron - ROR - Tarasenko
Steen - Thomas - Bozak (Bozak taking important draws)
Fabbri - Barbashev - Jaskin

Extra: Soshnikov, Thorburn

Dear lord that looks nice.

After some more thought, switch Maroon and Fabbri, and you have my ideal top six.

Fabbri, although on his off-wing, plays pretty well on the right side and, his style of play (fast, skilled, good shot, tenacious, hard working) fits the 17-10 combo perfectly.

Schwartz-Schenn-Fabbri
Perron-O'Reilly-Tarasenko

Should give teams problems (if 15 plays like he did before).

 

[Frenzy31]

I can't remember if I posted in this thread or not, but I am going to do something everyone will think is odd. Bozak was great with Kessel and I think he can be with Tank also.

Schwartz - Schenn - Maroon - Anywhere draws
Fabbri - Bozak - Tarasenko - Offensive draws
Steen - ROR - Perron - Defensive draws
Play top 3 all similar even strength minutes

Barbashev - Thomas - Jaskin (See if Barb and Jaskin can get reignite their chemistry) -

Another thought would be to put Fabbri with Thomas and Barbashev with Bozak and Tarasenko as the two Russians had a fair amount of chemistry.

 

[Stealth JD]

After some more thought, switch Maroon and Fabbri, and you have my ideal top six.

Fabbri, although on his off-wing, plays pretty well on the right side and, his style of play (fast, skilled, good shot, tenacious, hard working) fits the 17-10 combo perfectly.

Schwartz-Schenn-Fabbri
Perron-O'Reilly-Tarasenko

Should give teams problems (if 15 plays like he did before).

I can't imagine Maroon would have decided to take less money on a one-year deal to play 3rd or 4th line minutes with as much as he's got at stake. I'm sure there was an understanding that he wasn't being brought in to play on the 4th line, as that would be career suicide. There was even talk of him lining up with ROR and Tarasenko, direct from Army's mouth if I remember correctly, so at the very least I'd think he's being penciled into a top-9 role until beaten out of it.

 

[stl76]

After some more thought, switch Maroon and Fabbri, and you have my ideal top six.

Fabbri, although on his off-wing, plays pretty well on the right side and, his style of play (fast, skilled, good shot, tenacious, hard working) fits the 17-10 combo perfectly.

Also, @Stealth JD makes a great point about Maroon probably not signing up to play bottom 6 minutes. My guess is Maroon slots in as our #1RW or #2LW, but who knows.

Schwartz-Schenn-Fabbri
Perron-O'Reilly-Tarasenko

Should give teams problems (if 15 plays like he did before).

In an ideal world, I agree with you that Fabbri would look great on a line with Schwartz - Schenn. I think 100% Health Fabbri would also look tremendous on a line with ROR - Tarasenko (maybe even better than Schwartz/Schenn). Or even Bozak -Tarasenko...Fabbri has looked really good on a line with Tarasenko in the past.

However, I'm just a little hesitant to pencil Fabbri into the top 6 until we see how his knee/skating looks in a full speed game situation. Given our new found depth at forward, I think it makes sense to ease Robby "Big Time" Fabbri back into the lineup on the 3rd or 4th line.

Also, @Stealth JD makes a great point about Maroon probably not signing up to play bottom 6 minutes. My guess is Maroon slots in as our #1RW or #2LW, but who knows...

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

To start the season, I can see us running something like this to get the young kids feet wet, and to not over-do it with Fabbri.

Perron-O’Reilly-Tarasenko
Schwartz-Schenn-Maroon
Steen-Bozak-Kyrou
Fabbri-Thomas-Jaskin
Barbashev, Soshnikov

Sosh and Barbie would rotate in as well for Kyrou, Fabbri, and Thomas when they need games off, and other injuries of course.

 

[HighNote]

Ok, but you're the one who has to explain to Brayden that he is now our 4th line center after the best season of his career.

There is no 4th line. It is 1 of 4 lines.

 

[Blanick]

I love that we are 10 pages deep into a lineup thread in the middle of July.

 

[Stealth JD]

To start the season, I can see us running something like this to get the young kids feet wet, and to not over-do it with Fabbri.

Perron-O’Reilly-Tarasenko
Schwartz-Schenn-Maroon
Steen-Bozak-Kyrou
Fabbri-Thomas-Jaskin
Barbashev, Soshnikov

Sosh and Barbie would rotate in as well for Kyrou, Fabbri, and Thomas when they need games off, and other injuries of course.

I like this other than the fact that I just can't see Kyrou breaking camp with the big club without having any pro experience, when there are guys clearly ready for NHL minutes beating on the door. Kyrou needs to spend some time in the AHL I'd anticipate or else be pretty damn spectacular in pre-season to stick.

 

[Girth Butcher]

I'd start Kyrou in San Antonio. Give him a legit shot at a Calder in 2019-2020.

Wouldn't it be great to have back-to-back Calder candidates if Thomas ends up sticking with the Blues. Then a 3 peat if Kostin or Bokk come in 2021?

I am excited about our youth, but I don't want to rush them.

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

I like this other than the fact that I just can't see Kyrou breaking camp with the big club without having any pro experience, when there are guys clearly ready for NHL minutes beating on the door. Kyrou needs to spend some time in the AHL I'd anticipate or else be pretty damn spectacular in pre-season to stick.

It was with the assumption that he has an excellent camp, and that Army also keeps mentioning him in the lineup.

 

[Girth Butcher]

I love that we are 10 pages deep into a lineup thread in the middle of July.

It's a nice change of pace, yes? Much better than the past years complaining about Army and listening to ridiculous offers for Parayko for a 1 legged, washed up Center ice vet with a horrible contract that "would improve our team"

 

[PelleLindbergh]

what are we looking at for defense pairings?

 

[Vincenzo Arelliti]

what are we looking at for defense pairings?

Edmundson - Pietrangelo
Dunn - Parayko
Bouwmeester/Gunnarsson - Schmaltz/Bortuzzo

Gunnarsson might get traded (don’t want to say likely because we’ve been saying that for years). Either Bouwmeester or Gunnarsson could play with Parayko and Dunn would slide down to better balance offense and defense.

 

[DeuceNine]

Ok, but you're the one who has to explain to Brayden that he is now our 4th line center after the best season of his career.

He has to be the top center. That's why left Philly for all intents and purposes. Don't want to piss him off after last year.

 

[wannabebluesplayer]

He has to be the top center. That's why left Philly for all intents and purposes. Don't want to piss him off after last year.

To be fair, he was traded. He didn't choose to come to St. Louis. However, Schenn is obviously one of the top 2 centers on this team. It's currently between O'Reilly and him. Depending on how Thomas does, it could push him down the lineup or back to wing.

 

[David Dennison]

Which forwards are going to be on the PK? OReilly and Steen, but then who? Not that our PK was very good last year, but our highest PK ice time guys last year were Upshall, Brodziak, PRV, Steen, Stastny, Sobotka, Sundqvist, and Berglund. Aside from OReilly, our roster additions arent PK regulars. Thomas has an alright defensive rep. Could be the decider for ice time for the 11th/12th spots for guys like Jaskin, Sundqvist, and Shosh.

 

[Robb_K]

I can't imagine Maroon would have decided to take less money on a one-year deal to play 3rd or 4th line minutes with as much as he's got at stake. I'm sure there was an understanding that he wasn't being brought in to play on the 4th line, as that would be career suicide. There was even talk of him lining up with ROR and Tarasenko, direct from Army's mouth if I remember correctly, so at the very least I'd think he's being penciled into a top-9 role until beaten out of it.

I think Maroon will get 3rd Line minutes plus decent PP time. I'm sure he'll be satisfied with that.

 

[Spektre]

I think Maroon will get 3rd Line minutes plus decent PP time. I'm sure he'll be satisfied with that.

With all the movement of roster pieces among the forwards we're bound to see the lines juggle a lot. Maroon will probably move as much or more as anyone else on the team. Everything is subject to change but I think he's slotted in with ROR & Tarasenko to start out with.

Maroon ROR Tarasenko
Schwartz Schenn (Steen or Perron)
Fabbri Bozak (Steen or Perron)
Barbashev Thomas Soshnikov

 

[Brian39]

Which forwards are going to be on the PK? OReilly and Steen, but then who? Not that our PK was very good last year, but our highest PK ice time guys last year were Upshall, Brodziak, PRV, Steen, Stastny, Sobotka, Sundqvist, and Berglund. Aside from OReilly, our roster additions arent PK regulars. Thomas has an alright defensive rep. Could be the decider for ice time for the 11th/12th spots for guys like Jaskin, Sundqvist, and Shosh.

Perron will be on our PK. He didn't kill penalties in Vegas, but he played 1:09 per night on the PK with us in 2016/17. In his prior stint with us he had a couple other seasons with 44 seconds of PK time per night, so I expect him to be somewhere in the middle of those 2 numbers.

Schwartz/Schenn will likely get about the same amount of PK time that they did last year (maybe a small bump).

Steen should see a decrease in 5 on 5 time and PP time, so I'd expect his 1:14 of PK time a night to get back into the 1:45-2 minute range he was at in the 4 seasons before that.

ROR will play a lot of PK time.

After that, I think you're correct that at least one of the last couple roster spots will be given to a guy who proves that he can effectively kill penalties. Sundqvist has proven that he can do that, but I don't think it's enough to offset his abysmal offensive production unless every other guy fighting for the last 2 spots in the lineup looks terrible on the PK.

 

[Brian39]

Honestly, I think too many of you guys are trying to make the 4th line into a scoring unit and ignoring the need for defensive play and size/grit. I get that we have some good defensive forwards in our top 9, but the 4th line still has to be able to eat some minutes or our top guys are going to be completely run down by the end of the year.

Schwartz-Schenn-Perron
Maroon-ROR-Tarasenko
Steen-Bozak-X1
X2-Sundqvist-Jaskin

One thing I see though is that I think we’re going to miss Brodz a lot more than many seem to realize.

But yes, the 4th line will still need to be able to grind.

I heavily edited these quote to focus on a sentiment that I think is worth discussing. Both of them were long posts that get lost the way this site embeds quotes now. Throughout this thread, there has been a lot of back and forth between the 4th line being a scoring line or a more traditional 4th line. There are other quotes about this, but I just chose these two because they focus on the concept I want to talk about.

Why does a 4th line have to be able to grind in order to eat some minutes to get the top 9 rest? That is certainly the traditional role of an NHL 4th line, but is that because it is truly the best possible roster or is it because it is generally impossible to have enough good players on the 4th line for them to realistically be a productive scoring line? Is grinding a truly integral part of a successful NHL team or is it just that in a salary capped league, it is damn near impossible to built a non-grinding 4th line that can score more than they allow if they play a more offensive oriented style?

I've watched Canada consistently ignore grit/grinding to best on best International Tournaments and win 3 straight of them (Olympics in 2010 and 2014 and World Cup in 2016). I also watched Team USA leave skill at home to build an NHL style lineup and get embarrassed in 2014 and 2016.

I want to see the Blues come into camp open to building 4 lines that can score. We may learn that we don't have the horses for it, which will largely depend on Fabbri's level and what we have in Thomas, Kyrou, Barby, Sosh and the rest of the tweeners. If we have the horses to run a "4th line" like Steen-Thomas-Jaskin without dramatically harming the top 9, then we should do that over a traditional grind line. I don't expect Fabbri and Kyrou to both be good enough to make that a reality, but if they are then it is an option worth exploring.

I trust a lot of the projected scoring 4th lines to eat minutes way more than a line built around Sundqvist and Jaskin.