I’m sure they’ll start boqvist with Mikkola on the 2nd pairing to replace montour’s offensive production. Schmidt will be perfect with Kulikov. Even if boqvist can’t handle the minutes due to his decision making, they can swap him and Schmidt. However, he could very likely need close to the whole season under this coaching staff to really hit his stride. Even Kulikov early on last year would commit a boatload of penalties it seemed and then he became a rock for that bottom pairing as the season progressed. Or the season before with the Staal brothers, they were pretty terrible for most of the season and honestly both played very admirably towards the end. It may take him some time.
Even if not, Schmidt I think can handle the minutes, he likes playing RD anyways, and I honestly really like balinskis and think he’d be more than capable of being a full timer with Kulikov so I’m not terribly worried either way. The 2yr track record this coaching staff has handling defensemen is fantastic so I’m optimistic with boqvist as long as he can stay healthy. I’m not expecting him to be a defensive stalwart, but I think he’ll be a contributing member of the team and not a detriment, but we’ll see.
If Samo misses training camp and preseason then Im completely ok with him playing a 2nd full year in the AHL. Imo that can only help his development. He played two fantastic season with Michigan, had a very solid first year of pro hockey scoring over 20g and nearly a ppg. A second full year to build upon is completely fine. Especially being a successful team now, we don’t have to rush prospects anymore. I don’t think that’d be rushing him if he did make it this year, but we have the luxury of letting him marinate a little more if needed. If cousins could play in our top9 for most of the season then Jesper can. 4th line could always be Nosek at center with gadjo and Greer wreaking havoc on the wings. Entwistle is a possibility for the bottom pairing, as well as Luff if he earns a contract