Canucks 2024-2025 Line Combinations and Roster Discussion

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Joshua - Heinen - Garland

Heinen can play center and he is a much better offensive player than Blueger. It would be very potent 3rd line - all 3 realistically capable of scoring 20 goals.
 
Joshua - Heinen - Garland

Heinen can play center and he is a much better offensive player than Blueger. It would be very potent 3rd line - all 3 realistically capable of scoring 20 goals.
He really doesn't play center.

Heinen is a perfect 3rd wheel linemate to other, more offensively inclined players. He'll be excellent beside Petey or Miller and that is largely where he should play.
 
Why is that?

Because he's not very good at it? His face off record alone is abysmal. That's fine though because he hasn't played center in years. He's almost guaranteed to be in the top six as a winger.

Heinen - Miller - Boeser
Hoglander - Pettersson - Debrusk
Joshua - Blueger - Garland
Sprong - Suter - Sherwoord
PDG, Aman

Hughes - Hronek
Soucy - Myers
Forbort - Desharnais
Juulsen

Demko

Seems the most likely start, with Demko the only unknown at this point.
 
Because he's not very good at it? His face off record alone is abysmal. That's fine though because he hasn't played center in years. He's almost guaranteed to be in the top six as a winger.

Heinen - Miller - Boeser
Hoglander - Pettersson - Debrusk
Joshua - Blueger - Garland
Sprong - Suter - Sherwoord
PDG, Aman

Hughes - Hronek
Soucy - Myers
Forbort - Desharnais
Juulsen

Demko

Seems the most likely start, with Demko the only unknown at this point.

I agree on the forwards, but I'm interested to see what pairings they play around with on the defense during camp. I don't think it's set yet. Sprong/Hoglander and Suter/Blueger could easily swap spots in camp as well. Everything else is pretty set at forward.
 
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Sprong is going to get every opportunity to take Hogs spot in the top six, and also pp2 time.

Heinen likely rides with Miller and brockstar, with sherwood getting some chances in top6 and pp2 also
 
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Fair enough Don’t know much about the player. I thought I heard Allvin or somebody say he could play all 3 forward positions.

I mean technically he has experience from a long long time ago but it's more of just something you say to explain he's versatile imo. Only taken a handful of face-offs in his career. No way he's displacing Blueger, Suter, or even Aman, at Center which requires a high level of experience and competency to make the proper reads defensively. He was brought in to play wing.

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It would be interesting to see

DeBrusk - Pettersson - Garland
Joshua - Miller - Boeser
Heinen - Blueger - Sherwood
Hoglander - Suter - Sprong

and you could try swapping Garland and Boeser.

I'm guessing that their projected lineup right now for the start of the season is

DeBrusk - Pettersson - [Sprong/Hoglander/Heinen]
[Hoglander/Heinen] - Miller - Boeser
Joshua - Blueger - Garland
Sherwood - Suter - [Sprong/Heinen]

Assuming that Tocchet keeps Miller - Boeser and Joshua - Blueger - Garland married, and that the plan is to keep DeBrusk - Pettersson together and make it work, the other spots are up for grabs. Sprong will get a shot as the Kuzmenko replacement. Hoglander has to assert himself and impress Tocchet out of the gate to keep his spot in the top 6. Heinen, Suter and Sherwood allow for some flexibility.
 
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Judging for the line formations at training camp, the lines going into pre-season and likely the regular season potentially are set. and Joshua and Blueger should be back soon so...

Debrusk - Pettersson - Lekkerimaki
Heinen - Miller - Boeser
Joshua - Blueger - Garland
Sherwood - Suter - Hoglander

The Garland line has already established itself as one of the best 3rd lines in hockey, and now the 4th line has the potential to be one of the best in the league. With the possible emergence of Lekkerimaki, the bottom 6 has enough talent that it can score 1 or 2 goals a game, or an average of 1.5 goals per game.
 
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Joshua - Heinen - Garland

Heinen can play center and he is a much better offensive player than Blueger. It would be very potent 3rd line - all 3 realistically capable of scoring 20 goals.
At that point, why not just play Suter there instead for the same reason and call it a day?
 
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I'm really crossing my fingers that Pettersson takes a step and makes the team on defense as the #6 guy (pushing Forbort to the #7), because that would really move everyone into a more comfortable/promising spot with regards to my fear of the whole Forbort - Desharnais thing.
 
I think it’s nice that we’re hearing all these positive things about certain players at camp, but realistically I think we’ll see very predictable and balanced season opening lines.

Heinen Miller Boeser
DeBrusk Pettersson Hoglander
Joshua Blueger Garland
Sprong Suter Sherwood

Hughes Hronek
Soucy Myers
Forbort Desharnais
 
I'm really crossing my fingers that Pettersson takes a step and makes the team on defense as the #6 guy (pushing Forbort to the #7), because that would really move everyone into a more comfortable/promising spot with regards to my fear of the whole Forbort - Desharnais thing.

I don't think Forbort-Desharnais is really going to be a thing, they are in different groups in camp and haven't been tried at all. We'll see in the pre-season, but I doubt they go that way. It'll be some other setup. Soucy-Desharnais have been consistently together at camp in Group B.
 
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Joshua - Heinen - Garland

Heinen can play center and he is a much better offensive player than Blueger. It would be very potent 3rd line - all 3 realistically capable of scoring 20 goals.
i dunno man, in Six NHL seasons spread over three different teams, he's played almost 200 nhl games and has won 29 faceoffs.
i dont think he has much experience at the position
 
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I think it’s nice that we’re hearing all these positive things about certain players at camp, but realistically I think we’ll see very predictable and balanced season opening lines.

Heinen Miller Boeser
DeBrusk Pettersson Hoglander
Joshua Blueger Garland
Sprong Suter Sherwood

Hughes Hronek
Soucy Myers
Forbort Desharnais

i think the biggest surprise of camp will be something like sprong getting cut or blais getting a forward spot over pdg or aman. i don't think there's any real chance lekkerimaki or any of the young dmen make the opening night roster
 
Considering his suspect defensive resume... unless he completely re-invents himself, he's Top 6 or press box. Can't see him as a 4th liner.

I don’t know. I think the top 3 lines are all capable of playing tough minutes so defensive weakness would be more exposed there. It was one of the reasons Hoglander wasn’t getting moved up much the first half of the year. He’s generally played 4th line type minutes in his career and if Suter and Sherwood are with him it actually means decent skill to take advantage of other teams’ lower lines. Coaches love to play it safe though so we’ll see
 
I don't think Forbort-Desharnais is really going to be a thing, they are in different groups in camp and haven't been tried at all. We'll see in the pre-season, but I doubt they go that way. It'll be some other setup. Soucy-Desharnais have been consistently together at camp in Group B.
Honestly, even the idea of them both being in the lineup at the same time while Hughes and Hronek are stapled together means that they'll probably spend some time together, which alone is enough to scare me, even if it isn't the main setup (which, despite training camp lines, we don't really know either way). Things never really work out that cleanly over the course of a game. It's not like the pairings didn't get mixed and matched often last season.

Plus, I'm not even really specifically referring to them as a pairing. Even on separate pairings, that still feels like more defenseman who lack speed in the D-Core than I'd ideally like.

If Forbort is the reserve player, however, then it makes sense and sounds promising.
 

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