Line Combos: CBJ Roster Discussion/Line Combos/Injury Report (No surgery for KJ, but out long term, Voronkov practicing)

[NotCommitted]

Macelli must be compared with Marchenko, Johnson and Chinakhov.

And you could easily make an argument he's shown more so far in his career than any of those guys. Marchenko I feel pretty confident about, what he's shown in the NHL so far I think the floor is pretty high for him. Johnson and Chinakhov both look like they've taken a step forward but Johnson is out with a shoulder injury (again ) and while Chinakhov has all the tools to be great top-6 wing he's yet to show he can be that consistently. I think the odds are good he can, but you never really know until players actually do it.

I'm not saying Macelli is necessarily a player the Jackets should be targeting, but if he somehow ended up here it's not like he'd be stuck in the bottom-6 by default because top-6 winger spots are blocked by guys clearly better than him. He could easily become the best player of the 4. AFAIK he was usually the guy driving offense for his lines with the Coyotes.

 

[MoeBartoli]

I know the coaches wanted to get more balance in the lines and also want to get Fantilli going. But moving Chinakov off the top line has hurt the top line and not been that beneficial to Fantilli or Chinakov - individually or as a line.

The top line is still good but prior to the move it looked like a legitimate top line. I’d be fine with switching Sillinger and Chinakov.