Forwards
Bolduc-Thomas-Schenn
Neighbors-Buch-Kyrou
Saad-???-Texier
Toro-Faksa-Joseph
Kap/Walker
I'm leaving Sunny out until he proves he can actually play - this is his second major knee injury (I believe to the same knee) and he was already looking behind the play on most nights. Bolduc-Thomas-Schenn had a really solid finish to the year - I'd keep them together. Kyrou and Buch also looked pretty solid together without Thomas, I'd like to see Neighbors on their line as the guy who gets dirty and creates space. I have no clue who plays C on the third line, perhaps Dean or Dvo can snag the spot in training camp, but I'd rather we take our time with both of them - I think Dean has some serious upside offensively, but he needs more time in the AHL with the explicit goal of driving offense in a top 6 role. I guess you could move Texier (I know he's not really a Center) into that spot for now, and throw Joseph up on the 3RW spot, then move Kap into the 4RW spot. Extra becomes Walker/Alexandrov. I know Hayes was ass last year, but I still don't see why we paid a 2nd to give up a guy who was one of our only true centers - unless he was an absolute disaster from a mentor standpoint.
D
Leddy-Parayko
Suter-Faulk
Krug/Peru-Kessel
Not really sure what to do with 2LD to be honest now that we've signed Suter. I think he's probably better down the lineup but Krug is just so bad he can't be given top 4 responsibilities if we want to win consistently. Honestly finding a top pair (Not even #1, just top pair) caliber LHD who's maybe a bit more on the offensive side of things would have done wonders for us this off-season. A setup of:
1LHD-Parayko
Leddy-Faulk
Krug/Peru-Kessel
Joseph
looks.....actually reasonable?