Habs Halifax
Loyal Habs Fan
There is probably a little of column A and column B here. Your team has been search for a real #1C since... man... when was the last time the Habs had a real #1C? Bruins have had a pretty good run of finding a number 1C from Oates to Allison to Thornton to Savard to Krejci to Bergeron for a good 30 years with only a few Jozef Stumpel flavored blips along the way. Bruins obviously feel very good about Studnicka and they think Coyle is just hitting his stride as a Kevin Hayes like #2C. Is Studnicka/Coyle good enough? Probably not. But they have some time to figure that out.
I just don't see them having being as strong up the middle and with Chara gone. I've played hockey and know the importance of centers and a beast like that at the back end. He's still a force to deal with. Probability is it takes them longer than 3 years to find centers that keeps them as contenders. Best pieces are Pasta, Marchand, and McAvoy. Not saying the others suck but trying to sell that into more than what it is? I'm doubtful and teams don't stay contenders that long.
Coyle is a 3C. That's not going to change at the age of 28. Studnicka has not had substantially better development than Evans with the Habs in the AHL. If everything goes very very well with him, he might be a 2C (maybe). He appears to be a better talent than Evans yes.