Speculation: Off-Season Roster Building/Line Combos Thread

MinJaBen

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I saw this and thought this was interesting. I think some of the posters here have speculated that this would be the case, so it is not a surprise, but it is the first time I've heard it from the team.

Svechnikov and Necas can give the Hurricanes two top-line players who will be key pieces of their future. Though they're playing on the same line in this tournament, the Hurricanes plan to split them when training camp begins Sept. 14.

"Probably a little harder in the NHL to put the two young players like that together," Waddell said. "Down the road I can see it, but I think right now [coach Rod Brind'Amour's] plan is probably to break them up in camp, let them play with some veteran players. To be fair to them, they probably need to play with some veteran players too."

Svechnikov impressive in debut for Hurricanes at Traverse City
 

Unsustainable

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Unrealistic to put two rookies together on a NHL top-9/top-4 unit right away and have them not get abused. Most guys need to be insulated. In Necas-Svech case they would need a veteran, defensive LW which the Canes don’t have.

Slavin-Pesce did it (albeit at an older age) so it is not impossible.

Ferland?
 

NotOpie

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Makes you wonder of some of those early intimations that Necas might center Aho/Teravainen are spot on. He didn't look bad in the faceoff circle yesterday.

So maybe something like:

Aho/Necas/Teravainen
McGinn/Staal/Williams
Zykov/Rask/Svechnikov
Ferland/Martinook/PDG

That 3rd line would likely need sheltering....just not sure how it all shakes out w/out Svech and Necas playing together. Maybe put Zykov and Svech w/Staal and have a McGinn/Rask/Williams line.
 

Big Daddy Cane

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Asking an 18 year-old to not only drive a line offensively, but also to do it playing the hard minutes that Staal will play is not ideal. If Svechnikov and Necas playing together is an issue, I think we end up seeing Aho back on Staal's wing sooner rather than later.

Aho - Staal - Teravainen
Ferland - Rask - Svechnikov
McGinn - Necas - Williams
 

MinJaBen

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Ferland - Necas - Williams

McGinn - Necas - Williams

I don't think I would put Necas, one of our fastest players, on a line with Williams, our slowest. One of the best skills Necas has is playing with speed. He'd have to slow it down a notch to play with Williams. I'd rather try Necas between Aho and TT:

Aho - Necas - TT
McGinn - Staal - Svech
Ferland - Rask - Williams
 

Vagrant

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it just feels like they're going to start svechnikov with aho and teuvo to me. they might envision the compliment these three would be for one another. svechnikov has an advanced sense for the offensive zone that belies his age. establishing that relationship with aho if they envision aho as the 1c of the future might be the prudent route. he's going to have to earn it in camp, but there's no reason to wait if you feel the skill is there. projections of him starting on the 3rd line are just our "uncomfortable with the idea of an 18 year old that's already this good" leveling of expectations. nico hischier played 18:21 in his 6th nhl game at a considerably harder position than rw with a lot less fanfare than svechnikov coming out of junior. teams are waiting less to push these guys into action. if we adhere to league standard operating procedure for the 1st forward taken, we could see significant icetime immediately. i would think especially considering he's a winger with an already reputable understanding of his own zone. additionally, if you are able to put svechnikov with aho and teuvo, you avoid the awkwardness of having to pair svechnikov with necas with neither having played in the nhl before. there's not a baggage handler on this team that could handle that assignment. not even williams.

mcginn with staal and williams would give us a solid shift every time over the boards and wouldn't be a waste of anyone's offense. with a young team it could be important to have a line like this one to go out there and calm things down if our rookies start spazzing out. williams feels less like an anchor for his lack of skating on a line that projects to bring us slowly but consistently up the ice. plus, if there's anyone likely to be overslotted under brind'amour it's williams. he's in the top six somewhere.

this is where it gets a little hazy. we have some combination of ferland/rask/necas/zykov/martinook/foegele/pdg/wallmark. rask had a down year for certain, but he's great on draws. a line getting a lot of offensive starts and winning a lot of faceoffs might make playing rask with necas on the wing an option to exploit matchups. there's speculation from chip that the organization might like ferland with necas so this might make some sense. it seems unlikely we'd shift rask on the 4th line. he gets a lot of heat but he's unquestionably nhl caliber if derek ryan can get paid elsewhere. martinook played center for arizona frequently despite being listed most places as a winger, so he's likely our 4th line center in this arrangement. it's a little weird because our 4th line wouldn't have a lot of nhl experience but that might be unavoidable unless we have a depth signing coming up or pdg is more locked in at 4th line lw than i would hope.

teuvo - aho - svechnikov
mcginn - staal - williams
ferland - necas/rask - necas/rask
foegele/camp surprise/pdg - martinook - zykov
 

geehaad

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You may be right, Vagrant, that what's happening around the league is less old-school thinking about how quickly to test the draftees on the roster, but we can't ignore the old-school leanings of Brind'Amour and the likelihood that he will less of a risk-taker than other coaches around the league. You aren't incorrect in what you're saying, but it may not be 100% applicable to the 2018 Hurricanes.
 

Ole Gil

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I still think people are getting too worried about the rookie label. Necas has been playing against men, and has a fairly complete game. Svech is the top forward in the draft, and is being compared to Hossa.

Neither is going to walk in and pull a 'how do you defense?' like Skinner/Boychuk or any other 1 dimensional smurfs who've wandered onto the Canes roster.

My only concern is if they are as good as advertised. But I think what we see almost immediately will reflect that, rather than a long period of growing pains that requires hiding them from good competition.
 

kelsier

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it just feels like they're going to start svechnikov with aho and teuvo to me. they might envision the compliment these three would be for one another. svechnikov has an advanced sense for the offensive zone that belies his age. establishing that relationship with aho if they envision aho as the 1c of the future might be the prudent route. he's going to have to earn it in camp, but there's no reason to wait if you feel the skill is there. projections of him starting on the 3rd line are just our "uncomfortable with the idea of an 18 year old that's already this good" leveling of expectations. nico hischier played 18:21 in his 6th nhl game at a considerably harder position than rw with a lot less fanfare than svechnikov coming out of junior. teams are waiting less to push these guys into action. if we adhere to league standard operating procedure for the 1st forward taken, we could see significant icetime immediately. i would think especially considering he's a winger with an already reputable understanding of his own zone. additionally, if you are able to put svechnikov with aho and teuvo, you avoid the awkwardness of having to pair svechnikov with necas with neither having played in the nhl before. there's not a baggage handler on this team that could handle that assignment. not even williams.

mcginn with staal and williams would give us a solid shift every time over the boards and wouldn't be a waste of anyone's offense. with a young team it could be important to have a line like this one to go out there and calm things down if our rookies start spazzing out. williams feels less like an anchor for his lack of skating on a line that projects to bring us slowly but consistently up the ice. plus, if there's anyone likely to be overslotted under brind'amour it's williams. he's in the top six somewhere.

this is where it gets a little hazy. we have some combination of ferland/rask/necas/zykov/martinook/foegele/pdg/wallmark. rask had a down year for certain, but he's great on draws. a line getting a lot of offensive starts and winning a lot of faceoffs might make playing rask with necas on the wing an option to exploit matchups. there's speculation from chip that the organization might like ferland with necas so this might make some sense. it seems unlikely we'd shift rask on the 4th line. he gets a lot of heat but he's unquestionably nhl caliber if derek ryan can get paid elsewhere. martinook played center for arizona frequently despite being listed most places as a winger, so he's likely our 4th line center in this arrangement. it's a little weird because our 4th line wouldn't have a lot of nhl experience but that might be unavoidable unless we have a depth signing coming up or pdg is more locked in at 4th line lw than i would hope.

teuvo - aho - svechnikov
mcginn - staal - williams
ferland - necas/rask - necas/rask
foegele/camp surprise/pdg - martinook - zykov

I'd really love to see Teuvo - Aho- Svechnikov line. I think that's how it's going to be in the future. Aho will likely be the #1 center in the team and Svech #1 winger. Why not play them together cause you want to build on that early formed chemistry. Teuvo will be more like a complimentary piece which can be replaced if needed, even if I really like how well he has meshed with Aho in the past.

Svech could turn out the frunt-runner for the Calder if he got slotted in the first line and Aho could really elevate his game. Anyway I guess we'll see soon enough. I just hope they really try spin things around to find the right combo.
 

NotOpie

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Bumping this now that we're at Season - 1 game.

There are going to be some super difficult decisions to be made and especially with Jordan Staal's line, there still seem to be questions to be answered. You've got one of three rookies that could realistically make a claim to be on Aho/Teravainen's line as well. Who do you line up w/Necas? Does Wallmark or Martinook center the 4th line?

Starting with the 1st line, it seems that Sebastian and Teuvo play well with some sort of space-eater or disrupter on their line. That leaves a number of options. You could play Zykov who seemed to fit well there at the end of last season. Foegele's speed and tenacity seemed to work very well last night against the Caps. Equally, Micheal Ferland could step into that same role. But I thought I saw Andrei Svechnikov finishing the evening with the two Finns last night. So, I"m not sure where Roddy's head is on this. I'm going to predict:

Teravainen/Aho/Svechnikov

Now comes the hard part. You could easily default to putting McGinn and J-Willy with Jordan, but I think there's a need for a bit more offense from that group. To get that you'll either need Zykov or Foegele on this line. Equally, I don't think that Roddy wants an all rookie 3rd line. So my guess is:

Ferland/Staal/Zykov

If last night proved anything, it proved that Foegele could impact just about any line he's on. It also showcased Necas's speed and skill as a skater. I think you'll see Justin Williams as the stabilizing force on this line as well. My guess is:

Foegele/Necas/Williams

Yes, I hate to relegate McGinn to 4th line duties, but in today's NHL you've got to have more than a bunch of grinders in that group. I think Wallmark is a solid center who could even play up a line. Martinook is a valuable penalty killer who also has some offensive chops. Adding Brock to this line makes it good defensively and better offensively. I look at these guys getting 10 - 12 minutes a night. That group would be:

McGinn/Wallmark/Martinook

Thoughts?
 

Unsustainable

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I like your reasoning, but:

Foegele - Aho - TT
Zykov - Staal - Williams
Ferland - Necas - Svechnikov
McGinn - Wallmark - Martinook

Here’s my thoughts.

Aho - Turbo are money, Aho showed he can Center last night, Foegele is like the Tom Wilson of that line.

Zykov - Staal - Williams
Zykov and Staal are 2 trucks and a finisher.

Ferland - Necas - Svechnikov
Necas and Svechnikov have the skills to complement each other with speed and play making, Ferland is their protector and has a history of producing.

Wallmark is Rasks place holder here. But that’s a viable 4th line.
 

geehaad

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Replying to NotOpie:
  • Though it may happen in the last preseason game, none of these lines have been seen as of yet, so for that reason alone, I think your proposal is DOA.
  • Beyond that, your lines seem...weird. Staal's line contains every player who threatens a net-front presence, and seems to lack the buzz/speed of the general team dynamic shown in the preseason.
  • Though I think he's more than a 4th-line forward, I don't see McGinn in the top-9 of this roster.
  • Though it doesn't appear to matter where players are slotted on their lines (LW vs RW) in RBA's system, I'm guessing he prefers to have a lefty and righty on each line who can take a faceoff. Not saying it's mandatory, but that he'd make it happen if all else is nearly equal.
 

Unsustainable

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