2020-2021 Roster Thread

[Armourboy]

The taxi squad does travel with the team. This is only if you want to change members of the taxi squad.

Ah the way it sounded was like every time they wanted to use them they had to be called up and then wait 7 days.

 

[herzausstein]

So about the Taxi Squad. Apparently you can change players by call up/send down from AHL. To come up from the AHL a player can't go straight to the NHL roster. The players first have to quarantine for seven days and have four negative tests.

Makes sense. If you have a player on the taxi squad that you think should be getting some game time in the AHL or if they get injured, you can swap them out with someone else but that person has to go through proper protocols. The taxi squad is traveling with the team so you don't want to bring someone over from the AHL and have them possibly infect the entire team with Covid and derail the entire season. Taxi squad to NHL will work like a callup would in a normal NHL season though.

 

[BigFatCat999]

So uh...

JOFA
Tolvanen-Duchene-Grandlund
Grimaldi-Sissons-Kunin
Hook-Richardson-Trenin
Cousins-Pitlick-Tomassino

 

[herzausstein]

Well... now with granlund

Forsberg duchene granlund
Tolvanen Joey arvy
Grimaldi kunin sissons
Jarnkrok Richardson/trenin cousins

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I still don't want to see JoFA broken up, not after the way they played in the play-ins. So just consider the rest of the lineup a bit of a TBD below. But cap-wise...

Forsberg ($6M) - Johansen ($8M) - Arvidsson ($4.25M)
Granlund ($3.75M) - Duchene ($8M) - Kunin (?RFA - $2M?)
Grimaldi ($2M) - Sissons ($2.857M) - Trenin ($0.725M)
Jarnkrok ($2M) - Richardson ($1M) - Cousins ($1.5M)
spare ($0.750M)

Josi ($9.059M) - Ellis ($6.25M)
Ekholm ($3.75M) - Fabbro ($0.925M)
Borowiecki ($2M) - Benning ($1M)
Tinordi ($700k) - Carrier ($0.733M)

Rinne ($5M)
Saros ($1.5M)

Turris buyout ($2M)
Santini buyout ($0.04167M)

TOTAL: $75.79M
CAP SPACE = $5.71M

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Given I want to keep JoFA together, and given I don't see any point in playing Granlund and Duchene together, I wonder if there is a way to blend the middle-6 more, that still works.
JoFA
Jarnkrok - Sissons - Granlund ?
? - Duchene - Kunin

Jarnkrok is versatile, maybe he's a player who can at least not step on Granlund's toes, and if Sissons could bounce back a little maybe he could do some digging, and let Granlund be the main puck carrier on that line? I don't think they'd end up scoring much, but who knows.

Ah, I don't know. It just makes me think we will need to brace ourselves for a whole lot of trial and error and line mixing again, and that seems counter-productive to me... especially with no pre-season games, and the shortened schedule.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Well... now with granlund

Forsberg duchene granlund
Tolvanen Joey arvy
Grimaldi kunin sissons
Jarnkrok Richardson/trenin cousins

I feel like we're going to have a lot of issues with our guys being physically overmatched on the forward end. Boro and Benning going to help address some of that in the D corps, but I think that's a pretty soft top 9 group--God forbid anything happen to Forsberg or Johansen. That also feels like a really mediocre 3rd line. Think we need to see Tomasino in the mix and need to jumble that bottom 6 a bit.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Given I want to keep JoFA together, and given I don't see any point in playing Granlund and Duchene together, I wonder if there is a way to blend the middle-6 more, that still works.
JoFA
Jarnkrok - Sissons - Granlund ?
? - Duchene - Kunin

Jarnkrok is versatile, maybe he's a player who can at least not step on Granlund's toes, and if Sissons could bounce back a little maybe he could do some digging, and let Granlund be the main puck carrier on that line? I don't think they'd end up scoring much, but who knows.

Ah, I don't know. It just makes me think we will need to brace ourselves for a whole lot of trial and error and line mixing again, and that seems counter-productive to me... especially with no pre-season games, and the shortened schedule.

As long as our top forwards are getting the big minutes in some form I'm not deadset on keeping JoFA together. They seem to slip into some complacent stretches and I think we are also much easier to gameplan and defend against with Johansen and Forsberg on the same line. Go to JoFA to create a spark or get the team back in a groove, but split them back up when their play goes stale.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

As long as our top forwards are getting the big minutes in some form I'm not deadset on keeping JoFA together. They seem to slip into some complacent stretches and I think we are also much easier to gameplan and defend against with Johansen and Forsberg on the same line. Go to JoFA to create a spark or get the team back in a groove, but split them back up when their play goes stale.

I am probably just reading too much into how dominant they looked in the play-ins. Tiny sample, and against a weak opponent. I'm sure breaking them up again will inevitably be tried. Sigh.

 

[Scoresberg]

I'm not crazy on the overall size of our forward group, either but I believe Poile's thinking that in a shortened season without a real training camp with practice games, smaller and faster guys get up to speed faster than bigger, more physical guys.

I agree with Porter, we should not break up JOFA at least not from the start.

 

[predhead1]

I agree with Porter, we should not break up JOFA at least not from the start.

Without a full training camp and not much time on the ice for the past year, I can see a lot of benefit in keeping JOFA together as you don't have to worry so much about developing chemistry with that line. That said, if it effectively neuters the offensive production of the remaining three lines, I think it's something that will need to be seriously considered. The wild card in all of this is Kunin/Tolvanen/Tomasino, and whether you can plug one of them in with Duchene and Granlund to form a cohesive unit.

 

[Predsanddead24]

The wild card in all of this is Kunin/Tolvanen/Tomasino, and whether you can plug one of them in with Duchene and Granlund to form a cohesive unit.

It's also possible that one of those guys could replace a wing on JOFA and be just as effective. As much as I love JOFA we need our top guys to be able to elevate their linemates and not rely on being together to produce if we're going to be successful. To me that means that Johansen and Duchene should be able to play with any combination of our better wingers and make it work. If they can't do that we're not a true contender anyways.

Also, while JOFA played well in the bubble I'm not sure we should be all that impressed considering Arizona really wasn't very good and got straight up destroyed by Colorado. JOFA may have been the lone bright spot for us but I think that speaks more about how poorly the rest of the team played rather than how great JOFA played.

 

[Legionnaire11]

The OHL just announced that they won't be starting their season, not outright cancelled but they didn't give a new start date.

To me, if I'm the Preds and Tomasino, I think that makes the decision easy to pencil him in full time on the roster or at least taxi squad. He wasn't going to gain anything valuable by another season in the OHL anyway, so now there should be no hesitation to keep him up.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

The OHL just announced that they won't be starting their season, not outright cancelled but they didn't give a new start date.

To me, if I'm the Preds and Tomasino, I think that makes the decision easy to pencil him in full time on the roster or at least taxi squad. He wasn't going to gain anything valuable by another season in the OHL anyway, so now there should be no hesitation to keep him up.

Yeah, I think officially this means there is no roster spot for him now. But full time taxi squad should be at least something to keep him occupied.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

So now we're here:

Forsberg ($6M) - Johansen ($8M) - Arvidsson ($4.25M)
Jarnkrok ($2M) - Haula ($1.75M) - Granlund ($3.75M)
Trenin ($0.725M) - Duchene ($8M) - Kunin (?RFA - $2M?)
Grimaldi ($2M) - Sissons ($2.857M) - Cousins ($1.5M)
Richardson ($1M)

Josi ($9.059M) - Ellis ($6.25M)
Ekholm ($3.75M) - Fabbro ($0.925M)
Borowiecki ($2M) - Benning ($1M)
Tinordi ($700k) - Carrier ($0.733M)

Rinne ($5M)
Saros ($1.5M)

Turris buyout ($2M)
Santini buyout ($0.04167M)

TOTAL: $76.79M
CAP SPACE = $4.71M

Well we don't lack for depth for sure now. I guess in this scenario, if I was making a taxi squad, I would just keep it developmental and waiver-exempt for the most part:
F - Tolvanen, Tomasino, Pitlick
D - Davies, Allard
G - Ingram

Although sending Tolvanen back to the KHL to play and putting McCarron there instead would definitely be an option. And then if the AHL ever does start up this could be tweaked to get the development players some games and substitute in the AHL vets on a Taxi Squad 2.0.

 

[Predsanddead24]

We could try organizing our lines by nationality

Forsberg-Jarnkrok-Arvidsson
Granlund-Haula-Tolvanen
Duchene-Johansen-Tomasino
Cousins-Richardson-Sissons
Grimaldi-Kunin-McCarron

 

[herzausstein]

hmmmm so now.... i guess.....

Forsberg Joey RV
Haula Duchene Granlund
Tolvanen Sissons Kunin
Jarnkrok Richardson/Trenin Cousins

or

Forsberg Joey RV
Tolvanen Duchene Granlund
Jarnkrok Haula Kunin
Cousins Richardson/Trenin Sissons

or

Forsberg Joey RV
Tolvanen Duchene Kunin
Jarnkrok Haula Granlund
Cousins Richardson/Trenin Sissons

there's lots of possibilities... I fee these lines are quite flexible.

With the OHL with no start date, Tomasino will travel with the team to practice and push for a spot.

 

[Scoresberg]

Forsberg - Johansen - Arvidsson
Granlund - Duchene - Kunin
Jarnkrok - Haula - Grimaldi
Trenin - Sissons - Cousins
Richardson, Tomasino

Josi - Ellis
Ekholm - Ellis
Boro - Benning
Carrier

Saros
Rinne

TS:

McCarron, Tolvanen, Pitlick
Tinordi, Allard
Ingram

 

[BigFatCat999]

another signing. Maybe for this year, Hynes plays 52 card pick up for line ups. Unless Poile is making a trade? I'd say weaponize the taxi squad. Build a full roster of the max 29 players, rotate in lines as players need it.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Definitely feels like with these moves that Poile is feeling a little less confident in having young guys step up into bigger roles. I wonder how much of it has to do with the shorter training camp and lack of preseason games. I'd imagine when Poile made some of the comments he did after we got knocked out of the playoffs last season that he expected we'd have a more traditional looking offseason where you have a rookie camp, training camp, and several preseason games. Now you get a week of camp and have to go for it, and if you're sluggish out the gate you could very easily be out of a playoff spot before the season even really gets going.

 

[BigFatCat999]

There is another thing, what I heard from 31 thoughts podcast, one team might have 4 games in a row, ALL teams have one set of 3 games in a row and every game will be back to backs. build two three line rosters and rotate them in?

 

[Scoresberg]

Definitely feels like with these moves that Poile is feeling a little less confident in having young guys step up into bigger roles. I wonder how much of it has to do with the shorter training camp and lack of preseason games. I'd imagine when Poile made some of the comments he did after we got knocked out of the playoffs last season that he expected we'd have a more traditional looking offseason where you have a rookie camp, training camp, and several preseason games. Now you get a week of camp and have to go for it, and if you're sluggish out the gate you could very easily be out of a playoff spot before the season even really gets going.

I think it’s justified. Tolvanen has shown nothing that makes me believe he’s ready for a top-6 role. Trenin’s a good bottom-6’er but probably nothing more. Tomasino’s looking like the best bet right especially now with the OHL likely to be cancelled but I wouldn’t put all my eggs in his basket.

 

[jumb0]

JOFA
Tolvanen Duchene Granlund
Sissons Haula Kunin
Grimaldi/Trenin Richardson Jarnkrok

Josi Ellis
Ekholm Fabbro
Boro Benning

 

[Predsanddead24]

There is another thing, what I heard from 31 thoughts podcast, one team might have 4 games in a row, ALL teams have one set of 3 games in a row and every game will be back to backs. build two three line rosters and rotate them in?

I thought they just said it would be the same opponent two to four games in a row not that those games would take place on consecutive days. I guess we'll know for sure within the hour though.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Definitely feels like with these moves that Poile is feeling a little less confident in having young guys step up into bigger roles. I wonder how much of it has to do with the shorter training camp and lack of preseason games. I'd imagine when Poile made some of the comments he did after we got knocked out of the playoffs last season that he expected we'd have a more traditional looking offseason where you have a rookie camp, training camp, and several preseason games. Now you get a week of camp and have to go for it, and if you're sluggish out the gate you could very easily be out of a playoff spot before the season even really gets going.

I get why he might not be totally confident in the young players...

Tolvanen... eh, he was a mediocre 2nd liner in the KHL overall? Not exactly a straight translation into a bona fide 2nd line NHLer.

Tomasio... has taken a lot of great steps... but still is ultimately sketched in as a 13th forward spare for Team Canada at the WJC? There are complications involved in that, but still I guess if you were going to project a player as a 2nd line NHLer, definitively, that probably wouldn't happen.

Trenin... didn't exactly set the KHL on fire. Even again, with caveats that he was on a stacked team in a reduced role, and maybe playing in a style that wasn't most conducive to his personal player traits.

But there was nothing overall that shouted from the rafters that these were slam dunk 2nd line NHL options. We have our hopes, and our acknowledgements of the various caveats associated with those performances. But if you're really trying to ice a competitive NHL team, I do understand why you wouldn't hang your hat on what we've seen thus far from them.