Ferland and Jooris on the 2nd line, while Bouma is on the 4th? I'd rather Ferland play with Stajan and Jones, see if he can continue doing well with them.
I love Bouma, you might have seen me argue that he might repeat or exceed his 16 goal season next year. But it's best to keep him away from Backlund (for Backlund's sake, not Bouma's) and let Backlund's line hem other teams in their zone like 2013-14, and I think Ferland, Byron, and Jooris are the three players who really complement him. Byron-Backlund-Jooris was one of my favorite lines last season.
Jones/Bouma also showed great chemistry, and Stajan is the perfect center for that line. It's not about being a 4th line or a 3rd line.
I'd also have Colborne as a regular over Granlund.
Colborne's game is just too mechanical, I can see why some people think he's a top 6 forward because he's really tall, but... you really need wingers willing to shoot the puck. Consider that Colborne played in 54% more minutes than Granlund on the season yet only got two more shots on net and scored the same amount of goals. Granlund's just a more natural hockey player and the team can use that.
i like byron but id rather give his spot to a younger bigger player like shore or possibly poirier/ hathaway if they look good in camp. byron seems like a great 13th forward to have.
None of those players are better than Byron. If and when they show they are better than Byron, everyone would rather give his spot to them. But right now, Byron is one of the better forwards on the team and those guys have not even shown they are consistent NHLers. You have to take the blinders off to see that Byron is a very effective player and Shore has to prove he's deserving of a spot. Ideally, Shore takes Jones' spot and Poirier or Klimchuk take Byron's spot, which on paper should improve the team. But the players need to prove it themselves, not be gifted playing time.
I don't think Colborne will go from our 2nd line RW to a healthy scratch, we can't afford to take size and physicality out of the lineup.
The Bennett-Backlund-Colborne line was somewhat effective, but if you want Bennett to develop as a centre you have to give him minutes at center away from Backlund, and Colborne needed both of those players together for the line to work (while those players were functional away from Colborne). Beyond that, Colborne's lines struggled a lot this season to generate offense, even with gobs of powerplay time... trying to fit a square peg into a round hole for another consecutive season isn't gonna work. As for size and physicality, they might be a mirage with Colborne. They don't seem to translate, and I don't know why. Compare that to Ferland, whose size and physicality translate seemlessly and he's making something happen every time he's on the ice.
