Line Combos: Possible lineup after free agency ?

[Frk It]

I don’t even know how they justify Chiarot being one of our regular 6 defenseman based on ice-play… so I think his salary/contract has to be coming into play.

 

[norrisnick]

I don’t even know how they justify Chiarot being one of our regular 6 defenseman based on ice-play… so I think his salary/contract has to be coming into play.

He has to be an amazing practice player. Which makes sense because physical tools wise he's really good. He just has no idea how to read and react appropriately to what's going on around him. Which is why he can both have really good plays every now and then but be completely inept the next shift.

Like a modern Jovocop that's not spoonfed PP icetime.

 

[Gniwder]

I don’t even know how they justify Chiarot being one of our regular 6 defenseman based on ice-play… so I think his salary/contract has to be coming into play.

All of the D are within a $2M range aside from ELCs (Mo/Ed). Good coaches and GMs don't factor in contracts when determining ice time. Weiss, Nielsen, Abby, Ericsson, etc. Fester certainly didn't care how much Vrana made, turned that trade into a complete bust. Suter was making more money than Raz or Joey but sat out the first game as a healthy scratch.

I forgot my other prediction.... fans will be disappointed with Sprong's ice time. Quite frankly, anyone that has him on the second line is just stat watching and didn't even bother to watch his highlight reel from last season. Most of his goals were from lucky bounces and bad goaltending.

 

[Ezekial]

I still think he puts a bigger player on the top line with DBC, not Ray. Probably Perron, but I'm actually hoping Raz took another step over the summer. That's all I'm willing to go out on a limb for. Fester likes Perron and Raz, so it's in line with his thinking.

Maybe, I think it's possible Ras or Perron start up with Larkin and Debrincat, but I definitely think you can have Raymond-Larkin-Debrincat as a line even with Raymond being his size. The stereotype is that Debrincat needs Kane and Kane is no bigger than Lucas Raymond. Raymond would feast on having a RH shot like Debrincat, I think, and their same handedness isn't a detriment at all if they played together. Watching Raymond's highlights from last year he had some killer set ups that were blown, although not trying to blame his line mates for his season. Both can pass and shoot from either side and Raymond is a creative playmaker that would love a finisher.

 

[Gniwder]

Maybe, I think it's possible Ras or Perron start up with Larkin and Debrincat, but I definitely think you can have Raymond-Larkin-Debrincat as a line even with Raymond being his size. The stereotype is that Debrincat needs Kane and Kane is no bigger than Lucas Raymond. Raymond would feast on having a RH shot like Debrincat, I think, and their same handedness isn't a detriment at all if they played together. Watching Raymond's highlights from last year he had some killer set ups that were blown, although not trying to blame his line mates for his season. Both can pass and shoot from either side and Raymond is a creative playmaker that would love a finisher.

Ray is one of the best one touch passer in the league, but then again so was Hirose. Ray has better skating, shooting and is bigger, but he doesn't carry the puck the way Kane did. Kane wasn't just a passer, he had ridiculous puck skills and an uncanny ability to avoid checks. Watch his highlights, Raymond (and Burger too) is still an AHLer compared to what Kane did in his prime.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=We3Rc4qwTko

 

[Ezekial]

Ray is one of the best one touch passer in the league, but then again so was Hirose. Ray has better skating, shooting and is bigger, but he doesn't carry the puck the way Kane did. Kane wasn't just a passer, he had ridiculous puck skills and an uncanny ability to avoid checks. Watch his highlights, Raymond (and Burger too) is still an AHLer compared to what Kane did in his prime.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=We3Rc4qwTko

I guess that's why I only compared their size. I don't need to watch his highlights, I watched his career. He's my favorite American player of all time.

The thing about Kane+Cat is A) it's overstated and B) never needed/had a center like Larkin - Dylan Strome is the closest thing they played with. I've posted it before but his 40 goal 18-19 season he didn't even play with Kane all that much at even strength.
You don't need to replicate Kane-Debrincat you just need players to compliment each other. Raymond is a creative passer and shooter who isn't a 1 side of the ice player and Larkin can drive play and all 3 will be able to utilize each other.

But at the same time, I could totally see Ras or Perron being used in that spot and being effective. At the end of the day I really think Debrincat and Raymond are complimentary players and we shouldn't pigeon-hole them as separate entities due to binary thinking like "we need big guy with small guy"

 

[Rolo Tomassi]

I suspect they will try and play a bigger guy on the top line, too. Most likely Perron but possibly Ras. This would allow Raymond slightly more favorable matchups on a now more dangerous second line.

If this is the case, you could probably expect the second line to be a combination of whoever is left of Perron or Ras, then Compher or Copp as C, and Raymond. We dont have the most dynamic second line centers, but they are defensively sound and can, hopefully, be effective enough to work with the more dangerous wingers we have on the line.

Im sure Fester will be doing a lot of mixing and matching with the forwards for the first part of the season. At least now he has a lot of options and the bottom two lines are both filled with decent players who can actually contribute some physicality and offense, hopefully. No more AHL plugs, at the very least.

 

[Henkka]

Maybe they'll put the biggest offensive LW Berggren and biggest RW in Perron to play with Larkin.

Then smallest DeBrincat with Rasmussen and Raymond on second line.

That leaves Fabbri-Compher-Sprong to 3rd and Kostin-Copp-Fischer on the very strong cheking line.

So many options for Lalonde to try when you have good players.

 

[odin1981]

They're hardly irrelevant unless you plan on playing Seider and Walman 30 minutes a night.

You need your top D to play 23+
Your #2 to play 21+
Your #3 and 4 to play 20+

Even your bottom pair need to be reliable for 17+ minutes a night.

The best way to mitigate Chiarot is to reduce his icetime to 3rd pair icetime. We witnessed how bad Chiarot was with Seider and Hronek, 2 defensemen that are better offensively than him. We were warned by Montreal Canadiens fans here that he sucks defensively and doesn't make good use of his partner. How many times do you need to put your hand in the fire to realize it's hot?

Umm, there are only 60 minutes in a game. How do you three pairs as you mentioned end up playing 64 total minutes?

 

[Henkka]

Umm, there are only 60 minutes in a game. How do you three pairs as you mentioned end up playing 64 total minutes?

The average on NHL game is 61 minutes (because of overtimes)

There will be 5min of PP and 5min of PK on average.

Seider 2:30 on PP
Gostisbehere 2:30 on PP
Walman 0:30 on PP

Holl 3:00 on PK
Chiarot 2:30 on PK
Seider 2:00 on PK
Määttä 2:00 on PK
Walman 0:30 on PK

Walman-Seider 18min on ES
Walman 19:00 - Seider 22:30
------------
Chiarot - Gostisbehere 17min on ES
Chiarot 19:30 - Gostisbehere 19:30
------------
Määttä - Holl 16min on ES
Määttä 18:00 - Holl 19:00

1.Seider 22:30
2.Gostisbehere 19:30
3.Chiarot 19:30
4.Walman 19:00
5.Holl 19:00
6.Määttä 18:00

We'll see where Edvinsson will slot in.

 

[Gniwder]

Umm, there are only 60 minutes in a game. How do you three pairs as you mentioned end up playing 64 total minutes?

You read that wrong, he's not talking about pairs. Otherwise he'd have 4 pairs, for 84 minutes.

 

[WingsToPick4th]

Debrincat - Larkin - Raymond
Rasmussen - Copp - Perron
Berggren - Compher - Sprong
Kostin - Kasper - Fischer

Walman - Seider (this just works)
Maatta - Ghostisbehere (defensive and offensive combo)
Chiarot - Petry (MTL days)
Holl extra?

 

[Bench]

Debrincat - Larkin - Raymond
Rasmussen - Copp - Perron
Berggren - Compher - Sprong
Kostin - Kasper - Fischer

Walman - Seider (this just works)
Maatta - Ghostisbehere (defensive and offensive combo)
Chiarot - Petry (MTL days)
Holl extra?

Depending on how the powerplay shakes out, I think there's a larger chance Ghost is splitting the sit duties. I'm just trying to mentally prepare people for that.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Depending on how the powerplay shakes out, I think there's a larger chance Ghost is splitting the sit duties. I'm just trying to mentally prepare people for that.

I think we need his puck movement. I can see the argument for mixing in 7 D-man if we are healthy which again probably isn't very likely.

 

[Bench]

I think we need his puck movement. I can see the argument for mixing in 7 D-man if we are healthy which again probably isn't very likely.

There's certainly an argument to be made for 7 D and then deploying guys into their strongest zones.

 

[EbonyRaptor]

Debrincat - Larkin - Raymond
Rasmussen - Copp - Perron
Berggren - Compher - Sprong
Kostin - Kasper - Fischer

Walman - Seider (this just works)
Maatta - Ghostisbehere (defensive and offensive combo)
Chiarot - Petry (MTL days)
Holl extra?

Where's Fabbri and Veleno?

 

[Bench]

Where's Fabbri and Veleno?

Fabbri will definitely be in the lineup. Veleno, who knows.

 

[Henkka]

I think we need his puck movement. I can see the argument for mixing in 7 D-man if we are healthy which again probably isn't very likely.

Going with 7D and rotating those three centers (Larkin, Compher, Copp) with heavy ice-times?

Rasmussen - Larkin - DeBrincat
Berggren - Compher - Raymond
Kostin - Copp - Fischer
Fabbri - (rotating Center) - Sprong

Any combination of...
Fabbri - Larkin - Sprong, Fabbri - Compher - Sprong, Fabbri - Copp - Sprong
...as a 4th line, is pretty strong.

 

[The Zermanator]

Where's Fabbri and Veleno?

Just going by odds here, when the puck is dropped in game 1, a micro shard of frozen rock hard rubber will chip off the puck and hit Fabbri right on the side of his knee, completely obliterating his ACL. Out 4-6 months.

And there’s a real chance Veleno will not be one of the 12 best forwards on the team, and certainly not top 11 if a 7D scheme is used.

 

[Henkka]

Our defencemen scoring from last 2 seasons:

	Hand	Games	Goals	Assists	Points	Pts/game
S. Gostisbehere	LD	157	27	65	92	0,59
Moritz Seider	RD	164	12	80	92	0,56
Jeff Petry	RD	129	11	47	58	0,45
Ben Chiarot	LD	150	14	31	45	0,30
Justin Holl	RD	149	5	36	41	0,28
Jake Walman	LD	114	12	16	28	0,25
Olli Määttä	LD	144	7	24	31	0,22
Simon Edvinsson	LD	9	2	0	2	0,22

 

[lilidk]

Improved defense will lead to improve goaltenders. It's third pro season for Raymond and Seider , both should improve, also Copp who will be healthier should improve. Larkin finally will have plenty support. Are we better now than Buffalo and Ottawa

 

[SantosHalper]

Rasmussen - Larkin - DeBrincat
Berggren - Compher - Raymond
Kostin - Copp - Fischer
Fabbri - (rotating Center) - Sprong

Walman - Seider
Määttä - Petry
Chiarot - Holl
Ghost

This line up makes sense, Ras as winger, in a more offensive role and Copp anchoring the shutdown line. Joe Venom as 13th F and still 2 roster spots open. PTO Pysyk? Or someone else or a 1 PTO guy and 3 goalies? Both Lyon and Reimer up, and Cossa & Johnny Lemon in GR and Bednar in Toledo.

 

[TheOctopusKid]

Quick thoughts to a lot of the predicted uses of the D; I have a hard time imagining that we would sign Holl with that term without a clearly laid out plan on what they thought he brought to the table and how they planned on using him. I doubt "we'll use him as a depth D" was their intention. So despite the fact that everyone already wants to remove him from the lineup despite not seeing him in action with the Wings. It feels more likely (to me at least), that they would either use Ghost or Petry as situational 7th (2nd PP time, offensive zone pair situationally, etc.) then they would to just park Holl

 

[Gniwder]

Going with 7D and rotating those three centers (Larkin, Compher, Copp) with heavy ice-times?

Rasmussen - Larkin - DeBrincat
Berggren - Compher - Raymond
Kostin - Copp - Fischer
Fabbri - (rotating Center) - Sprong

Any combination of...
Fabbri - Larkin - Sprong, Fabbri - Compher - Sprong, Fabbri - Copp - Sprong
...as a 4th line, is pretty strong.

Rotating 4C isn't a bad idea, but Fabbri won't be on the 4th line. It'll be 2 of Fischer/Kostin/Sprong.

You also forgot Perron, Copp's line should probably look like Perron-Copp-Fabbri. IIRC, Copp and Fabbri played well together.

I think both Kostin and Fischer have played center at lower levels of hockey, Kostin is actually listed as a center in a few websites. Regardless, I do think Joey is the most expendable forward, if they decide to rotate the 4C spot.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Going with 7D and rotating those three centers (Larkin, Compher, Copp) with heavy ice-times?

Rasmussen - Larkin - DeBrincat
Berggren - Compher - Raymond
Kostin - Copp - Fischer
Fabbri - (rotating Center) - Sprong

Any combination of...
Fabbri - Larkin - Sprong, Fabbri - Compher - Sprong, Fabbri - Copp - Sprong
...as a 4th line, is pretty strong.

Is (rotating Center) some kind of new nickname for Veleno?