Line Combos: Playoffs lines

Aces on the road

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Oct 27, 2020
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Forwards:
Caufield-Kotkaniemi-Anderson
Tatar Danault Gallagher
Lekhonen Suzuki Toffoli
Evans Staal Perry
Drouin-Byron-Poehling
Defence:
Edmundson Petry
Romanov Weber
Chiarot-Merrill

Price
Allen


This has a chance to actually do damage. Poehling is the wild card, if he can slot in with Suzuki and Toff he could make this line very, very dangerous. Otherwise you have to bank on Toff and Suze taking their high IQ hockey to the next level while Lekhonen just crashes and bang like he can do.

If Kulak, Drouin or Byron touch the ice, this team isn't winning.


Also, run for 90 seconds

Suzuki-KK-Perry
Caufield-Petry

Suzuki below goal line and around the net, KK on the right halfboard controlling the play, Petry up top as the 2nd trigger option, Perry in his office and Caufield in the Ovi, scratch that, in the Goal Caufield spot.

Run wtv you want for the last 30 seconds, it doesn't matter, give Toffoli, Gally and Anderson their PP time as they deserve it, but don't rely on them.
Armia 3rd goalie?
 

Captain Mountain

Formerly Captain Wolverine
Jun 6, 2010
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Likely:

Tatar-Danault-Gallagher
Drouin-Kotkaniemi-Anderson
Toffoli-Suzuki-Armia
Byron-Staal-Perry

Edmundson-Petry
Chiarot-Weber
Romanov-Merrill

Price
Allen

There might be some interesting shuffling though. Hopefully the Edmundson-Weber experiment is dead and done with, but if the Chiarot-Weber pairing struggles, we might see Romanov, Merrill or even Gus tried with Weber. Drouin and Armia probably shouldn't be secure in their spots in the line-up either, since Caufield is an option too.
 

HuGo Burner Acc

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Mar 30, 2016
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Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Drouin - Suzuki - Anderson
Toffoli - Kotkaniemi - Caufield
Byron/Lehk/Staal - Evans - Perry
Edmundson - Petry
Chiarot - Weber
Merrill - Romanov
Price
Allen

I'm going with what I think it'll be oppose to what I would do
 

Mrb1p

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Dec 10, 2011
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I like those lines. I’m sure they’ll play Drouin so I guess he slots in beside Suzuki.

With the Evans-Staal-Perry line is it better to have Staal as the centre or Evans?

As far as the PP is concerned I agree with you too. That’s a great looking unit with 5 guys that can score or pass.
Evans has played wing before and can do it, his speed is an asset there, imo, Staal is a natural center so, Id have him there and hope he can get his shit together. Though Evans would probably be better in the defensive zone than Staal.
 

26Mats

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Jun 23, 2018
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Likely:

Tatar-Danault-Gallagher
Drouin-Kotkaniemi-Anderson
Toffoli-Suzuki-Armia
Byron-Staal-Perry

Edmundson-Petry
Chiarot-Weber
Romanov-Merrill

Price
Allen

There might be some interesting shuffling though. Hopefully the Edmundson-Weber experiment is dead and done with, but if the Chiarot-Weber pairing struggles, we might see Romanov, Merrill or even Gus tried with Weber. Drouin and Armia probably shouldn't be secure in their spots in the line-up either, since Caufield is an option too.

Drouin and Armia are the two weak links in our top 9.

I hope they are not there next season.

Caufield replaces one of them. Danault and Tatar should be re-signed (can use the money from not bringing back Armia and Lehkonen at over 1M AAV). Then we have to find the last top 9 forward to replace Drouin. Worth using. A pick to move him out, imo.
 
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Captain Mountain

Formerly Captain Wolverine
Jun 6, 2010
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Drouin and Armia are the two weak links in our top 9.

I hope they are not there next season.

Caufield replaces one of them. Danault and Tatar should be re-signed (can use the money from not bringing back Armia and Lehkonen at over 1M AAV). Then we have to find the last top 9 forward to replace Drouin. Worth using. A pick to move him out, imo.

They're not that weak that I would be upset if they're back. Montreal's depth is very good. But they're definitely the most vulnerable ATM.
 

26Mats

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Jun 23, 2018
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They're not that weak that I would be upset if they're back. Montreal's depth is very good. But they're definitely the most vulnerable ATM.

If they come back, no cap room to re-sign Tatar and Danault, let alone find a needed upgrade on Drouin.
 

Cold Coffee

Elite/Franchise/Generational/BPA
Jan 27, 2020
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Montréal
I'd keep Tatar-Danault-Byron and run this in the playoffs

Toffoli-Suzuki-Gallagher
Drouin-Kotkaniemi-Anderson
Tatar-Danault-Byron
Armia-Staal-Perry

Lehkonen/Evans

Hopefully Drouin gets traded this summer and Caufield takes his spot
 

Captain Mountain

Formerly Captain Wolverine
Jun 6, 2010
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If they come back, no cap room to re-sign Tatar and Danault, let alone find a needed upgrade on Drouin.

There is absolutely room to re-sign one of Danault or Tatar (should be Danault) with no other moves. Armia probably has enough of a market that Montreal doesn't really have room to re-up him anyways.

And I'm not sure bringing both back makes sense anyways. For one, you'd be lucky to move Drouin in a cap clearing move. The better Drouin move would be to swap him for a similarly maligned PMD. For another, How much term do you really want to give a 30 year old undersized Tatar? with Caufield waiting in the wings?
 

HuGo Burner Acc

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Mar 30, 2016
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If they come back, no cap room to re-sign Tatar and Danault, let alone find a needed upgrade on Drouin.

Armia gone, Allen contract decrease offsets increase in Petry and Gallagher contracts, Lehkonen might not be resigned, Staal gone, Habs will probably facilitate Seattle taking either Byron or Drouin. Also Alzners cap hit will go down. You have to subtract the cap hits Tatar and danault have. So they'll have about 20 million to resign KK, maybe Lehkonen, a bottom pair D, a 4th liner, Danault, and Tatar. They should keep some it so it probably have more like 15 that they have to spend.

They have enough to resign both but that would put them in cap hell when they need to resign Suzuki and Romanov the year after even with Chiarot coming off the books after 21/22.
 

26Mats

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Jun 23, 2018
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There is absolutely room to re-sign one of Danault or Tatar (should be Danault) with no other moves. Armia probably has enough of a market that Montreal doesn't really have room to re-up him anyways.

And I'm not sure bringing both back makes sense anyways. For one, you'd be lucky to move Drouin in a cap clearing move. The better Drouin move would be to swap him for a similarly maligned PMD. For another, How much term do you really want to give a 30 year old undersized Tatar? with Caufield waiting in the wings?

Well yes, if Armia is not re-signed, that money can go to Danault's raise.

I'm ok with extending undersized Tatar 3 years at about 5M. 4 is pushing it. Not sure there will be a big market for him during these covid times. But all it takes is one team.

Not Bringing back Lehkonen would help toward Kk's raise, but we'll need a little more. If we can find a quality to 9 player to replace Drouin, imo it's worth using good picks to move a Drouin or a Byron, or both. Byron at least is an NHL player, he's just overpaid. I don't know if Drouon belongs on an NHL roster that wants to win at this point. The constant turnovers and lost puck battles means he hurts the team more than he helps with all his secondary assists.
 

26Mats

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Armia gone, Allen contract decrease offsets increase in Petry and Gallagher contracts, Lehkonen might not be resigned, Staal gone, Habs will probably facilitate Seattle taking either Byron or Drouin. Also Alzners cap hit will go down. You have to subtract the cap hits Tatar and danault have. So they'll have about 20 million to resign KK, maybe Lehkonen, a bottom pair D, a 4th liner, Danault, and Tatar. They should keep some it so it probably have more like 15 that they have to spend.

They have enough to resign both but that would put them in cap hell when they need to resign Suzuki and Romanov the year after even with Chiarot coming off the books after 21/22.

I think the Alzner cap hit decrease and the Allen contract decrease combined even out the Gallagher and Petry raises combined...

So then it's basically about finding cap space to raise Danault and Kk, assuming Tatar can be brought back at about the same cap hit, or say the 300k more that we'll get when Weal is off the books.

So say Danault gets 5 and KK 5. That's about 4M in cap space we need. Armia and Lehkonen make 5M combined. So replacing them with Caufield and a 1M 4th liner, leaves 3M. So we're still 1M short.

And, that's to bring back the same team. To me, what's missing is an upgrade on Drouin. Would love it if Seattle took a pick from us to take on Drouin.
 

abo9

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Jun 25, 2017
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Gally was hurt last year, which I think slowed them down.

With how they are playing this year and if Gally is healed, I can't see us breaking up that line. They've been great since getting back together

Gallagher maybe has the injury excuse. The way he plays 99% of the time I'm not worried for him in the playoffs.
But Tatar and Danault both trend to a measly 25 points pace in their limited playoff experience, which is a significant dropoff from their RS stats.

Comparatively, Drouin's offensive production is consistent or better than his RS play. He's obviously an offense-first guy, but since he does provide offense in the playoffs I don't mind too much as we need all the offense we can get.
 

WeThreeKings

Habs cup - its in the BAG
Sep 19, 2006
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Halifax
I'm gonna make the lines as they should be.. don't care about anyone's status on the team.

Tatar-Danault-Gallagher
Caufield-Kotkaniemi-Anderson
Toffoli-Suzuki-Perry
Lehkonen-Evans-Byron

Scratched: Drouin, Staal, Armia.

Edmundson-Petry
Romanov-Weber
Kulak-Chiarot

Scratched: Merrill, Gustafsson.

Price
Allen
 

le_sean

Registered User
Oct 21, 2006
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I think the lack if assigned lines is what's hurting us the most. By having 3 lines that can be the top line any given night, we don't have any dedicated checking, shut down or offensive lines. It leaves us with 3 jack of all trades, master of none lines. That being said, I'd go with the following to help address that and with the mindset of what the current coaching staff would do:

Tatar Suzuki Gally - Scoring line
Toffoli KK Anderson - Scoring line
Byron Danault Armia/Lehkonen - shut down line that shadows opponents top line
Caufield Staal Perry - energy line with offence
Lehkonen

Chiarot Weber - You know this is the top pairing going into the playoffs. Just accept it.
Edmundson Petry - Has been best duo all year
Romanov Merrill - Merrill stays home allows Romanov to join the rush
Kulak

Anyone miss Drouin? LOL

PP 1:

Caufield Perry KK
Gally
Petry

PP2:
Toffoli Staal Tatar
Anderson
Weber (I'd prefer Romanov)

Considering Drouin was the 2nd best forward on the team last playoffs, yeah, he’s missed.

I wish he was currently playing better, but he still has two instances of showing up and playing extremely well in the postseason.
 

Captain Mountain

Formerly Captain Wolverine
Jun 6, 2010
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Well yes, if Armia is not re-signed, that money can go to Danault's raise.

I'm ok with extending undersized Tatar 3 years at about 5M. 4 is pushing it. Not sure there will be a big market for him during these covid times. But all it takes is one team.

Not Bringing back Lehkonen would help toward Kk's raise, but we'll need a little more. If we can find a quality to 9 player to replace Drouin, imo it's worth using good picks to move a Drouin or a Byron, or both. Byron at least is an NHL player, he's just overpaid. I don't know if Drouon belongs on an NHL roster that wants to win at this point. The constant turnovers and lost puck battles means he hurts the team more than he helps with all his secondary assists.

I don't know either, but remember that there will be 12 more NHL forward roster spots with Seattle joining the party. And Landeskog, Ovi, Hyman and RNH are the only UFA forwards with more points. And Tatar plays difficult minutes.

And Drouin plays quality top-9 minutes. So does Armia. You don't have to look very hard to find teams with worse players in their top-9. For that matter, whenever Byron plays top-9 minutes, he provides quality top-9 minutes.
 
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26Mats

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I don't know either, but remember that there will be 12 more NHL forward roster spots with Seattle joining the party. And Landeskog, Ovi, Hyman and RNH are the only UFA forwards with more points. And Tatar plays difficult minutes.

And Drouin plays quality top-9 minutes. So does Armia. You don't have to look very hard to find teams with worse players in their top-9. For that matter, whenever Byron plays top-9 minutes, he provides quality top-9 minutes.

This is all true. Given that, I would like to try to find a way to have the following 13 man forward roster next year:

Tatar Danault Gallagher
____ KK Caufield
Toffoli Suzuki Anderson
Evans, + 2 other 700k to 1M 4th liners (hopefully Perry is one of them and Lehk or Armia want to come back for 1M)
700k 13th forward

Hall would have been perfect on a 3 year deal to replace Drouin. Although his recent comments show he wants to play in Boston, it also sounds like he's not looking for big money or big term. Ideally I'd like to find a playdriving, playmaking winger like Radulov, Hall, or Wheeler (and like Drouin was supposed to be). They're actually pretty rare. Mitch Marner, Patrick Kane, Mark Stone, and Artemi Panarin are the elite. If Domi ever committed to being a winger he may be able to become good at that. Others include Huberdeau, Perron, Voracek,
 
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HuGo Burner Acc

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Mar 30, 2016
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I think the Alzner cap hit decrease and the Allen contract decrease combined even out the Gallagher and Petry raises combined...

So then it's basically about finding cap space to raise Danault and Kk, assuming Tatar can be brought back at about the same cap hit, or say the 300k more that we'll get when Weal is off the books.

So say Danault gets 5 and KK 5. That's about 4M in cap space we need. Armia and Lehkonen make 5M combined. So replacing them with Caufield and a 1M 4th liner, leaves 3M. So we're still 1M short.

And, that's to bring back the same team. To me, what's missing is an upgrade on Drouin. Would love it if Seattle took a pick from us to take on Drouin.

Exactly you probably have to adjust to Seattle either taking Byron or Drouin with some tangible convincing from MB. That brings the cap space to probably around 4-5 million once a depth D who shouldn't cost a lot is signed. But I stress this again cap he'll awaits if Habs resign both Tatar and Danault. But resigning one to a reasonable contract is absolutely fine
 

BigDaddyLurch

Have some PRIDE, Eric...
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What I'm expecting:

Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Drouin - Suzuki - Anderson
Toffoli - Kotkaniemi - Perry
Byron - Staal - Armia

Chairot - Weber
Edmundson - Petry
Romanov - Merill

Price


...despite the fact that Lehkonen and Evans are two of our better Bottom 6ers, they'll be sat...if they do stupidly call Caufield up to get his first taste of taking a shyte-kicking in the NHL, Armia will sit and Perry will probably be moved to Staal's line, despite the Time Vacuum created by how slow the two will be together...on Defense, Weber & Chairot will continue to be played together despite how bad they are as a pairing...Gustafsson might get a game or two in (for Romanov of course cuz...it's the Habs) and showcase his elite offensive skills; just kidding, he's more likely to be a minus 5 by his 4th shift...Kulak might as well just go home or start day drinking with Lehky & Evans...

...I don't have much hope in this group, as you can probably tell...
 
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Captain Mountain

Formerly Captain Wolverine
Jun 6, 2010
20,338
13,873
This is all true. Given that, I would like to try to find a way to have the following 13 man forward roster next year:

Tatar Danault Gallagher
____ KK Caufield
Toffoli Suzuki Anderson
Evans, + 2 other 700k to 1M 4th liners (hopefully Perry is one of them and Lehk or Armia want to come back for 1M)
700k 13th forward

Hall would have been perfect on a 3 year deal to replace Drouin. Although his recent comments show he wants to play in Boston, it also sounds like he's not looking for big money or big term. Ideally I'd like to find a playdriving, playmaking winger like Radulov, Hall, or Wheeler (and like Drouin was supposed to be). They're actually pretty rare. Mitch Marner, Patrick Kane, Mark Stone, and Artemi Panarin are the elite. If Domi ever committed to being a winger he may be able to become good at that. Others include Huberdeau, Perron, Voracek,

Not for nothing, but if your biggest concern is find a first line caliber winger (like Radulov, Hall or Wheeler) 2LW with both Toffoli and Anderson are the wingers on the 3rd line and your D core has Chiarot AND Edmundson in the top-4 D, your priorities are out of whack.
Also, if you're looking for a David Perron analog at LW that's actually realistic, might I suggest one of his closest 5v5 comparables, Paul Byron:

Player Season Totals - Natural Stat Trick
 

26Mats

Registered User
Jun 23, 2018
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Not for nothing, but if your biggest concern is find a first line caliber winger (like Radulov, Hall or Wheeler) 2LW with both Toffoli and Anderson are the wingers on the 3rd line and your D core has Chiarot AND Edmundson in the top-4 D, your priorities are out of whack.
Also, if you're looking for a David Perron analog at LW that's actually realistic, might I suggest one of his closest 5v5 comparables, Paul Byron:

Player Season Totals - Natural Stat Trick

Never said that was my top pirority. I just would like to upgrade Drouin. In fact the top priority at forward would be getting a number 1 center. But that's unlikely. Getting a playmaking winger of the highest caliber winger that is worth the price tag is what I'm suggesting. Drouin ain't it.

On D, Chiarot isn't like Byron and Drouin - he can be moved without using a draft pick. The year after next he's off the books. Imo, we'll be talking about finding a replacement for Weber in summer 2022 - at least those of you who aren't talking about that already. I think Weber is movable to a non-cap team. because his salary in 2022-2023 will only be 3M and then 1M for the remaining years of his contract. So moving him will free up 7.8M on the cap.

Anyways, as for next year, I have basically 3 boxes: 1. LD partner for Weber; 2. playmaking winger to play opposite Caufield; 3. 4c, as Evans starts out as 4th line winger.
 

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